Spanish
Lima.- The Congress of Peru will choose this Wednesday in an extraordinary plenary session, which will be held from 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT), the new interim president of the Andean country after this Tuesday it has dismissed the right-winger José Jerí, less than two months before the general elections.
"Having approved the motions of censure, the board of directors of Congress declares the vacancy of the office of president of the Congress of the Republic. Consequently, the office of president of the Republic of Peru is vacant", indicated the acting president of Congress, the Fujimorist Fernando Rospigliosi.
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He added that the election of the new president will take place in a plenary session of Congress on Wednesday and detailed that the deadline for parliamentary groups to submit candidate proposals expires this Tuesday, February 17, at 6:00 p.m. local time (11:00 p.m. GMT).With 75 votes in favor, 24 against, and 3 abstentions, the Peruvian Legislature resolved to remove Jerí from power due to the investigations opened against him during his short term of just four months, for semi-clandestine meetings with Chinese businessmen contractors of the State and alleged irregularities in the hiring of officials who previously had meetings with him in the Government Palace.
Jerí served as interim President of Peru in his capacity as President of Congress, following the removal of President Dina Boluarte (2022-2025), so that when he was censured as the highest authority of Parliament, he automatically lost his status as head of state in charge. So, over the next few hours, the benches of the Congress will have to agree and register the names of their candidates, so that the options can be debated this Wednesday. But with general elections called in less than two months and the low popularity of the parliamentarians, the options for congressmen who generate consensus are limited. Of the 130 parliamentarians, 57 are running for the Senate, 29 for the Chamber of Deputies and two for the Andean Parliament, leaving 42 eligible congressmen, and many have investigations or questions about various issues to get enough support to take office. So far, there are no official candidacies, but some names are already being considered in local media, such as the right-wing Maricarmen Alva, from Acción Popular; the leftist José María Balcázar, and the independent retired military officer Roberto Chiabra, who is a presidential candidate and should resign from his candidacy.
