Peru Congress rejects President's request for early elections

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Peru's Congress rejected a proposal by embattled President Dina Boluarte to move elections scheduled for April 2024 to December 2023 during the early hours of Saturday. Meanwhile, anti-government protests continue in Peru amid a declared state of emergency.

The proposal got 45 votes in favor, 65 against, and two abstentions, and was rejected in a plenary session.

This comes shortly after Peru's embattled President Dina Boluarte on Friday urged Congress to advance elections slated for April 2024 to December 2023.

It is worth noting that lawmakers had already voted on December 21 in favor of a Boluarte bill to bring forward elections from 2026 to 2024.

However, Boluarte urged Congress on Friday to advance the vote until December in the face of persistent protests.

"Congress voted once and we are waiting for them to vote again," she said at a military airport in Lima.

Congress is expected to debate the vote bill on Friday.

In seven weeks of protests since Castillo's impeachment, at least 47 people have been killed in deadly clashes between security forces and protesters, as per the Ombudsman's Office of Peru.

The South American country has been rocked by more than a month of protests, mostly in the southern and eastern areas, since the ouster and arrest of Boluarte's left-wing predecessor Pedro Castillo on December 7 in what many have called a coup.

Castillo's supporters have staged regular protests and blocked roads throughout the country, even at times trying to storm airports, calling for releasing Castillo, ousting Boluarte, and holding early elections.