The Congress of Peru elects José María Balcázar as president till July
Image supply, Congress of Peru
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José María Balcázar would be the new president of Peru.
The Peruvian Congress elected him as successor to José Jerí, whom he faraway from workplace on Tuesday via a movement of censure as a result of scandals that plagued his presidency.
Balcázar beat the candidate María del Carmen Alva, from Acción Popular, within the second and decisive vote of the congressmen by 64 votes to 46.
The different two candidates, Edgar Reymundo, from the Democratic Bloc, and Héctor Acuña, from Honor and Democracy, have been discarded within the first vote.
Balcázar’s victory got here in a second vote after not one of the candidates reached the vast majority of votes required to be proclaimed president within the first.
He would be the eighth president of Peru within the final ten years, which supplies an concept of the instability wherein Peruvian politics has been put in for years.
The new head of state may also have a brief mandate.
He should hand over energy on July 28, when the profitable candidate of the elections that the nation will maintain in lower than two months assumes the presidency.
The regulation prevents him from being a candidate in these elections.
Image supply, Jimena Rodríguez Romaní / Getty
Who is José María Balcázar
José María Balcázar Zelada, former Justice of the Peace and present congressman for Lambayeque, is 83 years previous.
He turned supreme member of the Judiciary and was additionally the topic of investigations for alleged affect peddling.
The Peruvian media current him as a person near Vladimir Cerrón, founding father of the Peru Libre celebration convicted of corruption and presently on the run from justice.
Scandals have plagued him up to now. His file exhibits that he was expelled from the Lambayeque Bar Association for alleged appropriation of funds.
In addition, he faces a constitutional criticism for alleged alternate of favors with former nationwide prosecutor Patricia Benavides, with whom, in keeping with the accusation, he would have organized parliamentary votes in alternate for the submitting of his legal proceedings in Lambayeque.
His closeness to Cerrón makes him seen as a consultant of the extra socially conservative Peruvian left.
Somewhat-known politician till now, he’s remembered for his opposition to the regulation towards youngster marriage in Peru and for his controversial feedback on the time.
“In the Civil Code, from 14 and up there is no impediment. Everyone has sexual relations. The law authorizes it. In other countries it is from 13 and up, as long as there is no rape. Everyone has relationships. Teachers with students, teachers with students, between students too,” he mentioned in statements quoted by the newspaper El Comercio.
His victory on this Wednesday’s vote in Congress stunned the vast majority of observers, who gave Alva as a favourite.
Balcázar could have the problem of guaranteeing institutional stability between now and the elections and retaining crime at bay, whose rise in recent times has grow to be one of many primary considerations of Peruvians.
But his election has already sparked adverse feedback from those that see in it a brand new transfer by congressmen who, in keeping with polls, arouse widespread fashionable rejection.
Why José Jerí fell
Image supply, Ernesto Benavides/Getty
The parliamentary censure of Jerí was the fruits of the succession of scandals that accompanied him since he took workplace on October 10, 2025, changing Dina Boluarte, additionally eliminated by Congress after being implicated in a number of circumstances of alleged corruption.
The so-called chifagate, the scandal over his off-schedule conferences with Chinese businessmen, one in all them immersed in a course of for his alleged participation in an unlawful timber sale plot, was the primary.
The different jumped a number of days later, after it turned identified that girls who visited Jerí within the Palace have been later employed by the State.
Jerí defended the hires and mentioned that claiming that they have been employed solely due to their closeness to the president or as a result of they have been girls was “completely false and unfair to their careers.”
But his explanations didn’t persuade the congressmen, who determined that he couldn’t proceed as president.
What occurs now
Balcázar was elected to interchange Jerí as president of Congress. By advantage of that place, Jerí held the place of president after Dina Boluarte’s emptiness and to any extent further it is going to be Balcázar who will accomplish that.
He will lead the Executive till July, when the winner of the elections whose first spherical can be held in April will take workplace.
All actions can be learn in an electoral key, with all political teams with their sights set on the primary electoral spherical on April 12.
Peruvians should elect a brand new president and a brand new Congress, however, judging by the polls, not one of the 36 registered presidential candidates arouse fashionable enthusiasm.
In the final ballot revealed by Ipsos on February 13, the candidate who appeared within the lead, the conservative Rafael López Aliaga, gathered solely 12% of the help.
The low reputation of the politicians and the fragmentation of the vote proven within the polls make it unlikely that the presidential race can be resolved within the first spherical.
It will in all probability not be till June, with the second spherical, when Peru’s political future can start to grow to be clearer.
But, given the historical past, nobody can rule out surprises for Balcázar or the nation between at times.
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