Dina Boluarte wanted to advance the general elections to get Peru "out of the quagmire".

But the Parliament rejected, Saturday morning, January 28, the request of the Peruvian president, while the country is shaken by mass protests which have left 47 dead since December.

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 evening provided for the elections to be brought forward to December 2023, instead of April 2024 as decided last December. 

In plenary session, at the end of a debate which lasted seven hours, the parliamentarians rejected the text by 65 votes, while 45 elected officials voted in favor, and two abstained, on Saturday shortly after midnight local time (5 a.m. GMT). ).

"With this vote, the proposal for constitutional reform aimed at advancing the elections is rejected", concluded the President of Parliament, José Williams.

The latter received, after the vote, a request for "reconsideration of the vote" which could be debated on Monday during a new session, although it now seems very difficult to reverse this result.

>> See also, Cap Amériques: demonstrations in Peru: the reasons for the anger against President Boluarte

The Peruvian president had called for early elections on Friday to get the country out of the "quagmire".

She said she supported the opposition's initiative to bring forward the presidential and legislative elections.

Dina Boluarte has ruled Peru since the dismissal of former president-elect Pedro Castillo by parliament on December 7, sparking violent protests in which 46 civilians and a policeman were killed.

His term of office was originally to run until 2026, at the end of the term of office that his predecessor should have served.

But to contain the growing discontent, Parliament had decided to bring forward the general elections to April 2024.

“I have no interest in remaining in the presidency”

"However, the protests continue, there are more blockages and violence," observed Dina Boluarte.

She was speaking from Lima airport, from where medicines and medical equipment were sent to the south of the country paralyzed by roadblocks.

She had pledged that the executive would organize the ballot "immediately" in the event of a positive vote by Parliament.

"No one has an interest in clinging to power (...) I have no interest in remaining in the presidency," assured the president.

Dina Boluarte said she would stay there to assume her "constitutional responsibility (...) "until Parliament (...) calls for elections".

>> To read also: crisis in Peru: the "country has been ungovernable for years"

The US State Department, through its spokesman Vedant Patel, said on Friday it supported "continued efforts for avenues of dialogue" and repeated its calls 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.

For Eddy Longobardi, a 40-year-old musician, "the Peruvians are not interested in this date" of December 2023, demanding the resignation of Dina Boluarte "within two months".

"Three times the normal price"

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, will carry out the unblocking of the roads ".

The central highway that connects the Andes and is the main route for importing food products to Lima is blocked, hundreds of trucks cannot circulate.

These roadblocks lead to shortages of basic products and fuel, drive up prices and, according to the government, complicate access to care and the arrival of medicines in several regions.

The government accused the roadblocks of being the direct cause of ten deaths, including those of three children who, according to it, could not receive the care they needed in time.

"There is no gas or gasoline. In the shops you only find non-perishable food and everything is very expensive, up to three times the normal price," Guillermo Sandino told AFP on Friday. , a marketing expert based in Ica, 300 km 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 daily, especially in the impoverished Andean regions of the south, which supported Pedro Castillo and saw his election as revenge for what they see as Lima's contempt.

With AFP

The summary of the

France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 app