Congress debates the electoral advance on Tuesday. PERU CONGRESS (via REUTERS)
Time in the Peruvian Congress runs differently than on the street.
In an impressive hemicycle of gold and yellow columns, the 130 congressmen sat down again this Tuesday to discuss the early elections in Peru.
It is the second time they have done so after rejecting it last Friday.
Outside of there, the protests in the interior of the country continue two weeks after the fall of Pedro Castillo.
Twenty-six people have already been killed in clashes with the police and the army.
All far from Lima, the capital that manages the political, business and economic power of the country.
The protesters demand the closure of Congress and new elections, but none of that will happen anytime soon.
The text that the parliamentarians will vote on again proposes elections in December 2023, within a year.
They maintain that this is the shortest period possible to prepare a new electoral call.
Among other reasons, beyond the legal deadlines, they allege that they need to make political reforms to reach elections with greater guarantees for citizens.
This is how a right-wing congresswoman explains it: "It would be too irresponsible to close this Congress to give them the same conditions and to select a worse one than the one we are finalizing."
One worse than ours, he wanted to say.
The Peruvian Congress is the political institution worst valued by citizens.
A month before Castillo publicly rehearsed a clumsy self-coup that has landed him in jail accused of rebellion, the president had more support among citizens than parliament.
Many now wonder what legitimacy these congressmen have to carry out the electoral reforms that the country needs to get out of the political crisis.
The legislative inactivity of the Congress has marked the last year and a half since the last elections.
The Parliament was erected from the first day in the first counterweight of President Castillo and the battle between the two powers occupied the entire mandate of the rural teacher.
He, who never achieved a stable government and was accumulating allegations of corruption, lived tormented by motions of censure.
The afternoon he announced the self-coup he had to face the third.
For many of his followers, Castillo is just a victim of a corrupt Congress;
for others, the president and parliamentarians are just as responsible for Peru's latest political failure.
“They are making fun of the people,” says Lizzy Díaz, who these days has taken to the streets of Lima to protest to request the closure of Parliament.
Political tension has continued to rise.
The new president, Dina Boluarte, who took office with the idea of governing until 2026, when Castillo's term was due to end, already calls hers a "transitional government."
Amid the protests and violence, Boluarte decreed a 30-day state of emergency and imposed a curfew in 15 regions.
Deaths, especially among young people, have continued to grow.
The president has demanded that the congressmen approve the electoral advance, but it is not in her power to get it.
"Don't be blind," she chided them this week.
Last Friday, only 49 congressmen voted in favor of the ruling to advance the elections to December 2023. If Peruvians go to the polls that day, the new Congress and the president would take office in April 2024, almost a year from now. and a half.
Some left-wing parliamentarians voted against that date.
“We cannot stay 16 more months, it is unsustainable.
Let's all go now.
As soon as possible,” said Congresswoman Sigrid Bazán.
But so far, December 2023 is the only opinion under discussion.
The political scientist Fernando Tuesta thinks that the congressmen have been forced to discuss the issue due to street pressure, but they do so "between interests and a resistance to not making the advance."
In Peru there is no re-election to Congress -or to any other institution- which would force the 130 parliamentarians to leave and explains, in part, their resistance to closing a mandate prematurely.
But the clamor is too loud now.
83% of Peruvians request an electoral advance, according to the latest survey of the Peruvian Institute of Economy.
While the debate drags on and a date is sought, protests and roadblocks continue in various regions of the south of the country.
Families have begun to bury their dead and are demanding justice.
A delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) arrives in the country on Tuesday to analyze the social and political crisis.
On the agenda is a visit to Ayacucho, where nine people died last Thursday in the violent repression by the Army.
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