Lima (EFE).- The plenary session of the Peruvian Congress ratifies its decision to once again analyze a possible advance of general elections in the country, after rejecting a request for reconsideration of that measure, which it adopted at the close of the previous legislature, on the 17th February.
The request for reconsideration was presented by legislator Jorge Montoya, from the ultra-conservative Renovación Popular party, and received 63 votes against, 41 in favor, and three abstentions during the first plenary session of the new legislature.
“Consequently, the corresponding process will continue” for the proposal for a new electoral advance project, said the president of Congress, José Williams, at the end of the vote.
The electoral advance is one of the main demands of the anti-government protests that began last December in Peru.
But so far Congress has not agreed to approve initiatives that proposed elections for 2023 or 2024, two of them from the Executive and another two from parliamentary benches, including Fujimori.
Reconsideration in the Congress of Peru
During the support of his request for reconsideration, Montoya assured that the electoral advance could not be reviewed again.
And that Congress “intends to mutilate itself” by proposing the early termination of his functions, for which he was originally elected until July 2026.
The legislator also maintained that there is a “systematic campaign against Congress” and insisted that an early election is “an attack on legal security” and that legislators are not subject to an imperative mandate and their position cannot be waived.
This Thursday, the president of Congress, José Williams, had called on the legislators of the different benches to “reflect” so that they make “the best decision” when they vote on the reconsideration of the electoral advance.
A possible advance of the elections
Congress approved on February 17, on the last day of the previous legislature, that the Constitution Commission prepare a new project to advance elections for evaluation by the plenary session.
However, the president of that working group, Fujimori Hernando Guerra García, announced shortly after that legislator Montoya had proposed a reconsideration of that vote.
After that, the Fujimori parliamentarian accused the “radical right” of obstructing the possibility of debating again the advancement of general elections in the legislature that ended that same day.
On February 20, Williams justified his decision not to immediately put Montoya’s request to a vote because he considered that congressmen should have “a time of meditation” to “analyze calmly” if they approve an advance of the general elections.
“I believe that it is necessary that there be a time of meditation, that the congressmen think carefully about the matter, and that we not rush with a project (of elections) to 2023, 2024 or 2026. I think that a calm is convenient to be able to take a good look at things,” he said.