Congress voted against Rocío Silva-Santisteban's list and Peru still has no president

11/16/2020 12:56 AM

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 11/16/2020 3:33 AM

The Peruvian Congress rejected this Sunday to elect

, from the Frente Amplio, as the new head of the Board of Directors, and therefore as the new president of the country, after the resignation of

.

60 votes in favor were needed, but surprisingly there was no consensus among the congressmen:

.

Silva-Santisteban was emerging as Merino's successor, since a single list headed by her had been presented and completed by Francisco Sagasti (Purple Party) in the first vice-presidency;

Luis Roel Alva (Popular Action) in the second vice-presidency, and Yessica Apaza Quispe (UPP) in the third vice-presidency.

After the vote, the session

and will resume on Monday at 2:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. in Argentina) to carry out

.

Meanwhile, at 10 (12 in our country) a Meeting of Spokespersons will be held.

For this second instance, the political groups have time to present their lists until after noon.

Minutes after midnight on Sunday, the Purple Party promoted its own list, with

as the candidate for the presidency of the Mesa Directa.

He is accompanied by Zenaida Solís, Angélica Palomino and José Antonio Núñez as candidates for the first, second and third vice presidency of Parliament. 

"It's a surprise, because it took a lot of work to come up with a consensus list," Silva-Santisteban told RPP after the frustrated vote.

"This makes us think how much distance there is between the spokespersons and their parliamentary groups. We have been from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. when we had to deliver the list and there were advances and setbacks. Finally the plenary session has expressed its will and now there is an intermission room and we are going to see what other approaches are going to be given, "he added.

After acknowledging that "there were several parliamentary groups that disagreed" with the list, the left-wing congresswoman said that "today a solution must come out of Congress."

said.

While congressmen define the next steps, hundreds of citizens hold a vigil outside Congress and demand a way out of this conflict.

This Sunday Congress accepted the resignation of President Manuel Merino, who had been in office for six days but was forced to resign due to the

, in which two young people were killed and there were dozens of wounded and missing.

The chosen one will be

, in a nation badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic recession, which plunged into a political crisis when parliament removed popular president Martín Vizcarra in a whirlwind trial last Monday .

Look also

Manuel Merino resigned from the presidency of Peru, after protests in the country

Protests in Peru and the fall of the president: the political class messed with the wrong generation