Peruvians continue to see no way out of the crisis the country is experiencing, and Congress’s decision not to advance the elections only makes the situation worse.
The unicameral parliament met on Friday at the proposal of the government of President Dina Boluarte to study an electoral advance to appease the protests that have plagued the country since the impeachment and arrest of former leftist president Pedro Castillo, on December 7, after attempting a self-coup.
However, Congress did not endorse the executive’s proposal, which only obtained the votes of 45 deputies after eight hours of session. Parliament already approved in December an advance of the presidential elections to April 2024, but given the worsening of the protests that have already left 64 dead, Boluarte requested a new electoral advance to October of this year, which was rejected on Friday .
However, House Speaker John Williams announced that a new vote will be held on Monday so lawmakers can reconsider a decision that has sparked outrage among thousands of protesters who have been blocking roads across the country for weeks and clashing with the police to demand the release of Castillo, the resignation of Boluarte and the immediate calling of elections.
The government itself recriminated this Saturday the decision of the deputies. “We regret that the Congress of the Republic has not been able to agree to define the date of the general elections where Peruvians can freely and democratically elect the new authorities,” it was published in the official account of the Presidency of Peru. “We urge the benches to put down their partisan and group interests and place the interests of Peru above. Our citizens promptly await a clear response that will pave a way out of the political crisis and build social peace, ”he added.
If Boluarte’s proposal had gone ahead and the elections had been held next October, the future president would have taken office on January 1, 2024, a long time in the current circumstances but would probably have served to generate a truce in the protests and in the climate of vacuum of power that exists in Peru.
Congress is one of the worst valued institutions in citizen surveys and one of the reasons that explain the refusal of the deputies to advance the elections is that current legislators cannot legally run for re-election.
Analysts and the media also questioned the parliament’s decision and one of the most eloquent was the newspaper Peru21, which headlined: “Congress turns its back on the country and rejects early elections for October.”
