February 07, 2023 12:44 GMT
Anger Remains As Early Election Proposals Shelved
PERU
- A congressional commission took up President Boluarte’s bill to bring elections forward to 2023 on Friday afternoon but shelved it on a technicality before it even reached debate. It cannot now be taken up again until July, when a new legislative year starts.
- The fresh legislative setback followed the failure of two other bills over the past week that would have advanced elections currently slated for April 2024 into 2023 — a key demand of protesters who have been in the streets since early December.
- Reuters spoke to dozens of protesters across multiple blockades in southern Peru on Monday, some occupied by a handful of protesters while others had dozens, who see no solution besides continued protests after Congress' repeated failure to bring elections forward to 2023.
- To recap from yesterday, Peru declared a 60-day state of emergency across seven regions of the country amid incessant protests demanding the resignation of the, according to a decree published in the national gazette over the weekend.
- Regions under the state of emergency are Madre de Dios, Cusco, Puno, Apurímac, Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna. Decree also declares the “mandatory social immobilization” from 8:00 pm to 4:00 am local time for 10 days in Puno.
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