Lima (AFP) – Some Peruvian lawmakers have had assistants clip their toe nails, others have been accused of sexual assault and rampant corruption — but while discredited and disdained, they could quickly bring down whoever wins Sunday’s knife edge election. Some 27 million Peruvians will be able to choose a new president Sunday in the runoff between leftist Roberto Sanchez and conservative Keiko Fujimori. But will either survive long enough to make a dent? Congress can declare the presidency “vacant,” as they have done multiple times in recent years, bringing political chaos with eight presidencies in 10 years. Some stints in office lasted only days.
“The people put a president in and Congress kicks him out,” said Leonidas Valdez, a 49-year-old mototaxi driver in a working-class neighborhood of Lima, summing up the situation. Eighty-seven percent of Peruvians disapprove of the legislature, according to an Ipsos poll. Since 2020, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has compiled complaints against 67 lawmakers for allegedly committing some 700 crimes, most of them related to corruption. The most widespread practice was that of the so-called “salary skimmers” — lawmakers who take a cut of their employees’ pay. At the same time, Peru has had an average of almost one head of state per year, unprecedented in Latin America.
The last elected president, Pedro Castillo, was ousted in December 2022, about a year-and-a-half into a five-year term. His deputy Dina Boluarte held on for almost three years before she was ultimately sent packing, leading to a series of interim leaders since late last year. “We’re the laughingstock of other countries that watch us change presidents all the time,” said 48-year-old transport worker Julio Raurau.
This time round either Fujimori or Sanchez will replace interim president Jose Maria Balcazar, who has been in office since February. Like all their predecessors since 2016, neither will have a legislative majority — so any dispute could turn to prosecution, impeachment or removal. A two thirds majority is needed from the 130 strong Chamber of Deputies and 60-member Senate to remove the head of state. If Fujimori wins, experts say she may fare slightly better. The right will have greater ability to stitch together alliances. But “the temptation to declare vacancy will always be there,” political scientist Fernando Tuesta told AFP.
Sanchez has fewer legislative backers and may have an even tougher run. He has only 14 senators and around 31 deputies who are firmly in support. Even before the results of the election are in, Peruvians are wondering whether the next presidency will be short-lived. “We really don’t know whose hands we’re going to end up in,” says 50-year-old Carmen Zuniga, an employee at a community kitchen in Lima.
© 2024 AFP
