​Political chaos

PERU - In Brief 30 Sep 2019 by Roberto Abusada

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This afternoon President Martín Vizcarra announced the dissolution of Congress.The immediate cause behind the president’s decision lies in his interpretation of today´s events in Congress. After the Constitution Committee decided to reject his proposal for early general elections last Friday, the Executive Branch presented another proposal introducing procedural changes in the way the six new members of the Constitutional Tribunal should be designated. Moreover, the President announced that the government was making the approval of its proposal a question of confidence. A session of Congress to name the new members of the tribunal was already in progress, and ‘ one of the six candidates had already been nominated.The president had declared earlier that if the question of confidence was not considered before the naming of the Tribunal members, he would “interpret” this as a rejection by Congress on the question of confidence and proceed to dissolve Congress, as such a rejection constitutionally empowered him to do so.In a surprising turn of events, Congress decided to allow the vote on the question of confidence, which was approved minutes before the presidential address announced the dissolution. The majority in Congress has now submitted a motion to remove President Vizcarra from office considering that he has acted unlawfully, as the Constitution establishes that an unlawful dissolution of Congress explicitly allows it to vacate the President from office.This situation has created an absolute chaos and gridlock, as the on the one hand the president has substantial vast popular backing for his actions but, on the other hand, it is clear that Congress can legally oust ...