The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, demanded this Saturday (17) that Congress approve the government’s proposal to bring forward the general elections in the country and emphasized that she will not resign amid protests and clashes between protesters from security forces who have at least 22 dead and hundreds injured.
“I demand that the vote to bring forward the elections be reconsidered. Do not come with useless pretexts, pretending to stay until 2026”, said Boluarte in reference to a plenary vote on Friday (16) that rejected a proposal to bring the elections forward to December 2023.
The Peruvian president also denied the possibility of resigning from office and said she will remain “firm” until Congress decides to bring forward the election, despite one of the demands of the protests being her departure from power.
“What will be solved by my resignation? Will the problem be solved? No, the problem will not be solved. Here we will remain firm until Congress decides to bring forward the elections”, he emphasized. She asked congressmen “not to abstain from voting, not to hide behind an abstention” when they pronounce on the proposal to bring forward the elections. “It’s either black or white, half measures don’t solve the country’s problems,” she said.
Boluarte also said that, “on its own initiative”, the government sent a bill to Congress to bring forward the elections amid the serious political and social crisis that is shaking the country, with demonstrations calling for her resignation, the closure of parliament itself and early elections. “No one wants to remain in power. We presented the bill to bring the elections forward, and it is Congress that has to vote to bring the elections forward”, he stressed.
The Peruvian Congress rejected on Friday the bill to bring the general elections forward to December 2023. The final score was 49 votes in favor, 33 against and 25 abstentions.
As a constitutional reform, the law required 87 votes to be put to a second vote in the next legislature or 66 to be decided in a referendum.
After the announcement of the vote, leftist parliamentarians protested in Congress to demand the inclusion of a referendum on a possible convening of a constituent assembly in the country, as they had proposed in a minority opinion that has not yet been decided whether it will be voted on in plenary.
Congress President Jose Williams suspended the session without saying when it would resume, but it was later announced that it would be on Monday.
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