As the polls of the past few weeks suggested, it is an extremely fragmented Congress which replaces the old Chamber dissolved on September 30, 2019 by President Martin Vizcarra. Ten parties, out of the twenty-one parties in the running, will sit in Parliament in dispersed order. None obtained more than 10% of the votes, according to the first results, still unofficial.
Nearly 25 million Peruvians were called to vote on Sunday, January 26 in extraordinary elections to renew the only parliamentary chamber, for a period of sixteen months before the general elections of 2021.
The former Congress, then dominated by the fujimorists (populist right, named after former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori, who is serving twenty-five years in prison for crimes committed during his mandate between 1990 and 2000), was dissolved then that, according to the President, he systematically obstructed the executive, in particular during attempts to implement anti-corruption measures.
Martin Vizcarra's strategy therefore seems to have paid off. The Fujimorists saw their electoral capital melt. Of the 73 seats obtained in the 2016 elections, they should only keep a dozen – with less than 7% of the vote – becoming the sixth force in Congress. A severe setback for the orange party, Fuerza Popular, already weakened by corruption cases and accused of being gangrened by a criminal organization.
"Dinosaurs" Leave Parliament
His leader and daughter of former head of state, Keiko Fujimori, could return to preventive prison in the next few days – she has already spent thirteen months there. She is on trial for money laundering and illicit association in the Odebrecht case – named after the Brazilian construction giant who paid millions of dollars in bribes to Latin American leaders.
Sunday’s vote sees a desire to renew political leaders. Opponent parties in the former Congress were punished. "Dinosaurs" leave Parliament, such as the American Revolutionary People's Alliance (right), one of the oldest Peruvian political parties and party of ex-president Alan Garcia (1985-1990 and 2006-2011) who had committed suicide in April 2019 when he was going to be arrested as part of the Odebrecht investigation.
Four former Peruvian presidents – Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), Alan Garcia, Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018), who resigned in March 2018 in favor of his vice-president, Martin Vizcarra – were implicated in the Odebrecht case for receiving money from the Brazilian group.
