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Peru
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Peru President Dina Boluarte proposes moving up elections amid protests

  • Peru’s President Dina Boluarte will submit a bill to bring general elections forward two years to April 2024
  • It comes amid tensions in the Andean nation following the ouster last week of former leader Pedro Castillo

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Demonstrators, many of them supporters of former leader Pedro Castillo, have for days demanded that Peru hold elections. Photo: AP
Associated Press

Peru’s newest president, Dina Boluarte, gave in to protesters’ demands on Monday, announcing in a nationally televised address that she will send Congress a proposal to move up elections.

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Boluarte’s decision came after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets around Peru for another day on Sunday to demand that she resign and schedule elections to replace her and Congress. The protests turned deadly, with at least two reported deaths in a remote community in the Andes, according to officials.

Boluarte said she will propose the scheduling of general elections for April 2024.

Many of those demonstrating in the ongoing political crisis are demanding the release from custody of Pedro Castillo, the centre-left president ousted last Wednesday by lawmakers after he sought to dissolve Congress ahead of an impeachment vote.

Hundreds of people also protested in Lima, the capital, where riot police used tear gas to push protesters back.

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The protests rocking Peru heated up particularly in rural areas, strongholds for Castillo, a former schoolteacher and political newcomer from a poor Andean mountain district.

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