Peru's Boluarte renews call for early elections

Peru's president, Dina Boluarte, has made a renewed appeal for congress to hold early elections to end weeks of deadly protests, warning that she would seek constitutional reform to make a vote happen.

Since 7 December, the South American country has been in a political crisis with near-daily protests, when then-president Pedro Castillo was arrested after trying to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

Over seven weeks of demonstrations, 48 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, according to the Peru ombudsman s office.

Last month, lawmakers moved elections due in 2026 to April 2024, but as protests show no sign of abating, Boluarte asked they be held this year. She urged congress to move the vote up further on Friday.

The proposal was rejected by Congress at a plenary session that ended early Saturday, with 45 votes in favor, 65 against and two abstaining.

The legislature is going to convene Monday to discuss the election timetable.

Boluarte said that if lawmakers don't bring forward the vote, she would propose constitutional reform so that a first round of elections would be held in October and a runoff in December.

Demonstrators are calling for immediate elections, Boluarte's removal, the dissolution of Congress and a new constitution.

Nobody has any interest in clinging to power, Boluarte said on Friday. If I am here, it is because I fulfilled my constitutional responsibility. On Saturday, hooded protesters fought with police in a fog of teargas as Lima became the scene of scuffles and the city's first death from the protests was recorded.

Over the last few weeks, Castillo supporters have blocked highways, leading to shortages of food, fuel, and other basic supplies.

The unrest is mainly caused by poor, rural indigenous people from southern Peru who identified Castillo as indigenous and from that same region as one of their own who would fight to end poverty, racism and inequality from which they suffer.