The Peruvian Congress has rejected this Friday at the last minute to bring forward the call for presidential elections to 2023, after hours before the fujimorista party proposed to replace the previous proposal for the holding of the elections, set for April 2024.
With 65 votes against, 45 in favor and two abstentions, the substitute text proposed by the president of the Constitution Commission and congressman of Fuerza Popular, Hernando Guerra García, has been rejected by the Andean Parliament, falling short of the 87 votes needed, reported ‘La República’.
The proposal has been rejected after the Congress approved with 78 votes to submit to a vote a possible change in the date of the elections, agreed last December 20 in a preliminary vote for April 2024.
Specifically, the left-wing bench has rejected the measure alleging the need for a new electoral process to include a Constituent Assembly, considering that the proposal made by the pro-Fujimori Fuerza Popular was «fraudulent».
However, although an advance in the date of the elections has not been approved -as demanded by the participants in the protests shaking the country- next Monday, February 30, it will be subject to a new reconsideration, all this after the president of the Congress, Jose Williams, has suspended the session, as reported by the radio station RPP.
Meanwhile, the president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, hours earlier urged the Congress to set «the date and time» to bring forward the elections, qualifying the measure as urgent.
«That this proposal, which has no conditions, will get us out of this quagmire in which we are (…) That the elections be brought forward to the date and time that the Congress decides. Immediately we, from the Executive, will be calling those elections», the President added.
Peru is in the midst of a deep political crisis following the dismissal by the Congress of former President Pedro Castillo, who announced last December 7 the dissolution of the Andean Parliament and the establishment of a government of exception.
Following the arrest of the former president, tens of thousands of people came out to protest in various parts of the country to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the dissolution of Congress and the urgent calling of presidential elections. Since then, more than 60 people have lost their lives in riots between demonstrators and security forces.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
