Congressional Election in Peru Leaves a Fragmented and Uncertain Political Environment

!!!

On Sunday, January 26, 2020, Peru held a legislative election after President Martín Vizcarra used his constitutional power to dissolve Congress at the end of September 2019. The new Congress will finish out the five-year term of the previous Congress, ending in 2021. Vizcarra dissolved the legislative and called elections in a bid to end a political crisis between the president and a Congress dominated by the Fujimorista party. Voters, who widely supported the call for new elections, savagely punished the Fujimoristas and APRA, the party of former President Alan García who committed suicide in April of 2019 as police arrived to arrest him on corruption charges. They also returned some old, previously insignificant parties to the legislature. The election wrought a fractured Congress, divided among ten different parties, with no single one of them dominant. Observers noted that this could prove advantageous to President Vizcarra, or it could be a total mess.

To read the full content subscribe today!