LIMA, PERU (AFP) – Peruvian President Dina Boluarte made a renewed appeal on Sunday for Congress to hold early elections as a way to end weeks of deadly protests, warning that otherwise she will seek constitutional reform to make a vote happen. The South American country has been embroiled in a political crisis with near-daily street protests since December 7, when then-president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.
In seven weeks of demonstrations, 48 people including one police officer have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, according to the Ombudsman’s Office of Peru.
The unrest is coming mainly from poor, rural Indigenous people from southern Peru who had identified Castillo, Indigenous and from that same region as one of their own who would fight to end poverty, racism and inequality from which they suffer. Last month lawmakers moved up elections due in 2026 to April 2024, but as protests show no sign of abating, Boluarte now wants them held this year, a call that Congress rejected on Saturday.
“Vote for Peru, for the country, by moving the elections up to 2023,” the president said in an address to the nation. “Tomorrow you have a chance to win the country’s trust.”
Boluarte’s urging comes after a Saturday plenary session, during which Congress rejected the proposal to move up the election with 45 votes in favour, 65 against and two abstentions.
She said on Sunday that if lawmakers refuse, she will propose a constitutional reform so that a first round of elections will be held in October and a runoff in December.
