Peru’s president, Dina Boluarte, has made a renewed appeal for congress to hold early elections as a way to end weeks of deadly protests, warning that otherwise she would seek constitutional reform to make a vote happen.
The South American country has been embroiled in a political crisis with near-daily protests since 7 December, when then-president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve congress and rule by decree.
Over seven weeks of demonstrations, 48 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, according to the Peru ombudsman’s office.
Last month lawmakers moved elections due in 2026 to April 2024, but as protests show no sign of abating, Boluarte has asked they be held this year. On Friday she urged congress to move the vote up further.
However, at a plenary session that ended early Saturday, congress rejected the proposal, with 45 votes in favor, 65 against and two abstentions.
The legislature is scheduled to convene Monday to discuss the election timetable.
Boluarte said 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 and a runoff in December.
Demonstrators are calling for 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 said on Friday. “If I am here it is because I fulfilled my constitutional responsibility.”
On Saturday, hooded protesters wielding shields, stones and pieces of cement fought with police in a fog of teargas as Lima became the scene of scuffles and the city’s first death from the protests was recorded.
Over recent weeks, Castillo supporters have blocked highways, causing shortages of food, fuel and other basic supplies.
The unrest is coming mainly from poor, rural Indigenous people from southern Peru who had identified Castillo – who is Indigenous and from that same region – as one of their own who would fight to end poverty, racism and inequality from which they suffer.