FILE PHOTO: Peru’s president, Martin Vizcarra, speaks during the 4th Pacific Alliance Summit in Lima, Peru July 6, 2019. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo/File Photo
September 27, 2019
LIMA (Reuters) – Peru’s centrist President Martin Vizcarra on Friday called for a vote of confidence over lawmakers’ proposed members for the Constitutional Tribunal, a move that would allow him to dissolve Congress if is denied.
In a televised speech from the presidential palace in downtown Lima, Vizcarra said opposition lawmakers were intent on staying in office to shield them from criminal probes.
Vizcarra cannot run in the next general elections due to limits on consecutive terms. In July, he proposed leaving office with lawmakers a year earlier than scheduled to end a protracted power struggle and rebuild trust with voters after back-to-back corruption scandals in recent years.
(The story corrects first sentence to show vote of confidence will be about proposed justices, not shelving of early-election proposal)
(Reporting By Mitra Taj; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
