Peru: The Peruvian President Ms. Dina Boluarte has made a renewed appeal for Congress to hold early elections to end weeks of violent protests. Ms. Boluarte warned that if elections did not happen, she would seek constitutional reform to make a vote happen.

Since December 2022, when former president Mr. Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree, the South American country has been in the grip of a political crisis, with nearly daily protests.

According to the Peruvian Ombudsman’s Office, over the course of seven weeks of demonstrations, 48 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters.

In December 2022, lawmakers moved elections due in 2026 to April 2024, but as protests show no sign of abating, Ms. Boluarte has asked that they be held this year. Recently, she urged Congress to move the vote up further.

However, at a recent plenary session that ended, Congress rejected the proposal with 45 votes in favor, 65 votes against, and two abstentions.

Ms. Boluarte remarked that if lawmakers refused to bring forward the vote, she would propose a constitutional reform so that a first round of elections would be held in October 2023 and a runoff in December 2023.

Demonstrators are calling for immediate elections as well as Ms. Boluarte’s removal, the dissolution of Congress, and a new constitution.

Earlier, the president commented that “nobody has any interest in clinging to power. If I am here, it is because I fulfilled my constitutional responsibility.”

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