Peru’s Congress rejects plan for early elections
Peru’s Congress rejected on Saturday a request by embattled President Dina Boluarte to bring forward elections to December this year as protests that have killed dozens rage on against her leadership.
The South American country has been embroiled in a political crisis with near-daily protests since December 7, when former president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.
Demanding that Boluarte resign and call fresh elections, Castillo’s supporters have erected roadblocks on highways, causing shortages of food, fuel and other basic supplies. The government said it would soon deploy police and soldiers to clear the roadblocks.
Lawmakers already agreed last month to bring forward elections from 2026 to April 2024.
In the face of relentless protests, Boluarte on Friday urged the Congress to call the vote for December, describing the political crisis as a “quagmire.”
But in a plenary session held in the early hours of Saturday, the Congress rejected the proposal, with 45 votes in favor, 65 against and two abstentions.
Leftist parties had demanded that the holding of elections earlier be accompanied by a constitutional convention — something protesters have repeatedly called for.
“With this vote, the constitutional reform proposal for the advancement of elections is rejected,” Congress president Jose Williams said after more than seven hours of debate.
Following the vote, Williams received a request for “reconsideration,” which could be debated on in a new session on Monday, though it would be difficult to reverse the decision.
Protesters have demanded immediate elections, as well as Boluarte’s removal, the dissolution of Congress and a new constitution.
“Nobody has any interest in clinging to power,” Boluarte insisted. “I have no interest in remaining in the presidency. If I am here, it is because I fulfilled my constitutional responsibility.”
As Castillo’s vice president, Boluarte was constitutionally mandated to replace him after he was impeached by Congress and arrested.
US State Department spokesman
Vedant Patel told reporters on Friday that the department remained concerned about the violent demonstrations and called “for calm dialogue and for all parties to exercise restraint and nonviolence.”
In seven weeks of protests since Castillo’s arrest, 47 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, according to the Ombudsman’s Office of Peru.
The autonomous human rights office said another 10 civilians, including two babies, were collateral fatalities when they were unable to get medical treatment or medicine due to roadblocks.
In Peru’s southern regions, weeks of roadblocks have resulted in shortages of food and fuel.
“There’s no gas, there’s no [fuel]. In grocery stores, all you get are nonperishables and everything is very expensive, up to three times the normal price,” marketing employee Guillermo Sandino told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Ica, a city 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Lima that connects the capital to the south.
On Thursday, the Defense and Interior ministries announced that police and the military would soon move to clear the roadblocks.
Authorities said on Thursday that traffic was blocked in eight of Peru’s 25 regions, which has also complicated medical treatment in some areas, with doctors unable to access needed medicines.
Some of the worst violence and highest death tolls have come when protesters tried to storm airports in the country’s south.
Those southern regions with large Indigenous populations have been the epicenter of the protest movement that has affected Peru’s vital tourism industry.
Besides blocking dozens of roads and forcing the temporary closure of several airports, protesters have also placed rocks on the train tracks that act as the only transport access to Machu Picchu, the former Inca citadel and jewel of Peruvian tourism.
That resulted in hundreds of tourists being left stranded at the archeological ruins and many of them were evacuated by helicopter.