Lima, (EFE) 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT).
“The plenary session of Congress called for today will resume at 4:00 pm (2:00 GMT on Wednesday),” the Legislature reported on its social networks.
This is the second time in the last few hours that the Legislature has postponed this crucial debate, which aims to meet one of the main demands of the anti-government protests that began last December and have left 65 dead in the country.
Request of the protesters
The demonstrators demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress, the advancement of general elections and the calling of a constituent assembly.
In this sense, the debate and vote on the project could be carried out in extremis, since the current legislature was to conclude at midnight this Tuesday, but then the president of Congress, José Williams, decided to extend it until February 10.
On Monday, Williams announced the postponement of the debate and vote for Tuesday morning, six hours after the House approved, with 66 votes in favor, 44 against and 6 abstentions, to reconsider a vote that last Friday rejected the advance electoral.
After the approval of the reconsideration, which was accepted with the decisive vote of Williams, the president of the Constitution Commission, the Fujimorista Hernando Guerra García, asked for an intermission room to meet separately with each of the political parties to present a text that can generate greater consensus.
Who refuses to advance the elections?
So far, among the groups that have expressed the greatest rejection of the proposal to advance elections for this year are the ultra-conservative Renovación Popular and the centrist Acción Popular, as well as Peru Libre, the self-proclaimed Marxist party that brought the former president to power in 2021. Pedro Castillo.
The project that is presented must be debated by the full parliament and its eventual approval requires the support of 87 of the 130 congressmen that make up the Peruvian chamber.
If approved, the opinion must be submitted to a vote again in the next legislature, as it is a constitutional reform.
This Monday, the president of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola, declared that the Boluarte government is “waiting for the decision of Congress” and they are “sure that there will be a way out” of the political and social crisis that has been shaking the country since December.
Boluarte announced on Sunday that if Parliament does not approve the early general elections, it will immediately send two projects so that the elections can be held anyway this year and for the total reform of the 1993 Constitution by the next legislature.