The Parliament of Peru on Saturday rejected the request of the Peruvian president who wanted to hold early elections in order to get the country out of the “quagmire”.
Peru has been rocked by mass protests that have killed 47 people since December (46 civilians and a policeman). The demonstrators demand the resignation of interim President Dina Boluarte as well as the rapid holding of new general elections.
A bill tabled on Friday would bring the elections forward to December 2023, instead of April 2024, as decided last month.
At the end of a debate which lasted seven hours, the parliamentarians rejected the text by 65 votes. Forty-five elected officials voted in favor and two abstained on Saturday shortly after midnight local time.
Parliament Speaker José Williams then received a request for a “reconsideration of the vote” which could be debated on Monday, although it now seems very difficult to reverse the result.
Dina Boluarte deplored on Saturday that the Parliament was “not able to agree on a date for the general elections, during which the Peruvians will be able to elect the new authorities freely and democratically”.
“We urge MPs to put partisan interests aside and put Peru’s interests first,” she tweeted.
The interim president had called for such early elections on Friday in order to get the country out of “the quagmire”.
She said she supported the opposition’s initiative to bring forward the presidential and legislative elections to December 2023.
Ms. Boluarte has ruled Peru since the dismissal on December 7 by parliament of former president-elect Pedro Castillo, which sparked violent protests.
His mandate originally was to run until 2026, at the end of that which his predecessor should have accomplished.
But to contain the growing discontent, Parliament had decided to bring forward the general elections to April 2024.
“No interest in staying”
“However, the protests continue, there are more blockages and violence,” observed Ms. Boluarte.
She was speaking at Lima airport, from where medicines and medical equipment were sent to the south of the country paralyzed by roadblocks.
She added that the executive would “immediately” organize a ballot in the event of a positive vote by Parliament, ensuring that it did not want to “cling to power”.
US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said on Friday that the United States supported “continued efforts for avenues of dialogue”, reiterating a call for “calm”.
“We are not going to wait. It has to be now, ”stormed Sandra Zorela, a 53-year-old teacher in Cuzco, deserted by tourists who usually come to visit Machu Picchu, a jewel of Peruvian tourism closed due to the unrest.
Very expensive foodstuffs
Faced with around a hundred roadblocks erected, mainly in the south of the country, the Ministries of Interior and Defense announced that “the national police of Peru, with the support of the armed forces, [allait] unblock the roads”.
Authorities identified 88 barricades on roads in eight of Peru’s 25 regions on Thursday. In particular, a highway is blocked, which is the main route for transporting food products to Lima.
These roadblocks lead to shortages, drive up prices and, according to the government, complicate access to care and the arrival of medicines in several regions.
The government has accused the dams of being the direct cause of ten deaths, including those of three children who, according to it, could not be treated in time.
“There is no gas or gasoline. In shops, you can only find non-perishable foodstuffs and everything is very expensive, up to three times the normal price,” Guillermo Sandino, a marketing expert based in Ica, told Agence France-Presse on Friday. 300 kilometers south of Lima.
The political crisis has also hit the tourism sector hard, which lost 5.7 million euros per day between June 2022 and the end of January, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
Protests continue on a daily basis, especially in poor Andean regions in the south who supported Mr Castillo and saw his election as revenge for what they see as Lima’s contempt for them.