Voters in Peru will go to the polls to elect a new Congress this Sunday, after President Martin Vizcarra dissolved the previous one last October, arguing that opposition lawmakers were stymieing his anti-corruption reforms. Questions about the legal validity of Vizcarra’s move were settled last week, when the country’s top court narrowly ruled in the president’s favor.
Vizcarra’s proposed reforms are popular in Peru, where four former presidents have been caught up in corruption scandals, including one, Alan Garcia, who shot himself in the head as police were trying to arrest him last year. Clearly, Peru’s electorate is fed up with corruption, and Vizcarra has staked his presidency on tackling this issue. But will voters follow through by delivering a new legislature that is more amenable to Vizcarra’s policies? For this week’s interview on Trend Lines, WPR’s Elliot Waldman discusses the outlook for this weekend’s elections with Cynthia McClintock, an expert on Peru at the George Washington University.
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Relevant Articles on WPR:
An Unprecedented Constitutional Crisis Divides Peru. But Who Is to Blame?
Was Vizcarra’s Showdown With Congress the Right Way to Fight Corruption in Peru?
Peru’s Accidental President Hits His Stride by Taking on Corruption
What Kuczynski’s Downfall Means for His Successor, and Peru
Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.
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