{"id":59868,"date":"2020-01-27T11:52:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T03:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=59868"},"modified":"2020-01-27T11:52:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T03:52:37","slug":"peru-congress-vote-election-follows-september-dissolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=59868","title":{"rendered":"Peru Congress vote: Election follows September dissolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/660\/cpsprodpb\/A433\/production\/_110653024_mediaitem110653021.jpg\" alt=\"A woman votes in legislative elections in Peru, 26 January 2020\"\/><figcaption>A woman voting in Cusco, a city in the southeast which was once the Inca capital<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>LIMA, Jan 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Peruvians have been voting to elect a new Congress after the previous one was dissolved by President Mart\u00edn Vizcarra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vizcarra took the drastic step in September, arguing that lawmakers were obstructing his anti-corruption agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exit polls suggested the new Congress will be fragmented with the biggest party Popular Action, gaining less than 12% of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The exit polls also indicate Popular Force, which was the dominant party in the last Congress, gained only 7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Popular Front is led by Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A judge is due to decide next week whether Keiko returns to preventative custody while she faces corruption charges. She denies any wrong-doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new Congress will be short-lived &#8211; it will be replaced in next year&#8217;s general elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under Peru&#8217;s electoral laws, parties need to achieve at least 5% of the popular vote or seven elected legislators to gain representation. The high number of undecided voters could result in a fragmented assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Vizcarra had made the fight against corruption his main priority when he took power in March 2018 after then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned over a vote-buying scandal. When parties, including the Popular Force, blocked his efforts, he dissolved Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His tough anti-corruption stance endeared him to Peruvians tired of the endless scandals that have tainted not only Kuczynski but also the three previous Peruvian presidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly before polls opened, Vizcarra said maximum effort should go into reaching consensus to achieve the best for the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voting is mandatory in Peru, Latin America&#8217;s fifth-largest economy, and some 25 million people are eligible to vote. The new Congress will finish the current legislative term, which ends in July 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this month, the constitutional court said President Vizcarra, a centrist politician, had not exceeded his powers when he dissolved the chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Opposition lawmakers had denounced the dissolution of Congress as a coup but the heads of the armed forces and the police backed the president. Supporters of Vizcarra turned out to show their approval of the move. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LIMA, Jan 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Peruvians have been voting to elect a new Congress after the previous one was dissolved by President Mart\u00edn Vizcarra. Vizcarra took the drastic step in September, arguing that lawmakers were obstructing his anti-corruption agenda. Exit polls suggested the new Congress will be fragmented with the biggest party Popular Action, gaining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59868"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}