Peru elects president at an "unbearable crossroads" electoral

“Tomorrow (for today) there will be no liberating vote that saves us from the charge of conscience, because although we are not all guilty, we are responsible for being trapped at this unbearable crossroads”. No one better than the Peruvian writer Renato Cisneros to describe the feelings of a good part of the 25 million citizens of Peru summoned yesterday to the polls in the Andean country, in charge of choosing who they will jump into the void with since July 28, when Pedro Castillo or Keiko Fujimori make Pizarro's chair their own.

Between economic ruin or moral ruin, as the writer himself sums up. Both candidates took advantage of election day to try to dispel the dark clouds hanging over them, an almost impossible task that forced a good number of them to vote with bated breath..

The unionist of the radical left made a last appeal, after attending mass, “so that we make an effort not to think about personal interests or money. I am sure that this party will be totally democratic.”. Castillo maintains against all odds his commitment to a Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution, a fundamental key in the Bolivarian agenda, in addition to increasing the presence of the State in strategic sectors and the promotion of the popular economy.

“We are going to get ahead, do not be afraid of uncertainty,” insisted Keiko, leader of Fuerza Popular, stained by corruption and on which a judicial process weighs in which the Prosecutor's Office claims 30 years in prison for money laundering and organization criminal. The right-wing populist, who has lost forgiveness on countless occasions, wanted to show an image of a united family and allowed herself to be photographed with her brother Kenji, after the reconciliation in recent days. In the political environment of Lima, it is believed that Keiko will promote the pardon of her father, the dictator Alberto Fujimori, who remains in prison, sentenced to 25 years in prison for serious human rights violations..

Whoever is elected, the challenges that lie ahead for a presidency that will be under permanent surveillance are enormous, as are the challenges that other powers and civil society must face.. “I think the challenges are similar to those of President Guillermo Lasso in Ecuador: facing the socioeconomic crisis caused by covid-19 and governing without the luxury of a legislative majority. However, there are also several fundamental challenges, such as creating state capacity for the delivery of services such as public health and education and strengthening justice. Because in the end, it is a combination of political corruption and the poor state of public policies that undermine the public support of Peruvian leaders,” political scientist John Polga-Hecimovich stressed to EL MUNDO..

The main inheritance of the government of the centrist Francisco Sagasti in the fight against the coronavirus will be the vaccination process. “I am sure that the next president or president will follow him,” advanced the president, in the political antipodes of both candidates.

Pandemic

The commission of experts that Sagasti created in April, under the parameters of the World Health Organization (WHO), has aired that there are not almost 70,000 fatalities from Covid-19, but 180,000, with the consequent national shock. A process that has not yet been carried out by the rest of the countries in the region.

On the other hand, the good performance of the Central Bank for two decades has allowed Peru to maintain the lowest inflation in the region, but the pandemic has hit employment cruelly: 2 million were lost during 2020. How to transfer the fruits of economic growth to the most disadvantaged classes continues to be the great pending issue.

Another of the big questions for the new president is whether he will manage to avoid the scythe of Congress and popular protests: three presidents fell in the current legislature, from the one who won the electoral contest from Keiko in 2016, Pedro Pablo Kuczyinski, to his successor, Martin Vizcarra. The last to fall last year was the “brief” Manuel Merino.

Of those who preceded them, Ollanta Humala went to prison, Alejandro Toledo awaits a possible extradition in the US and Alan García committed suicide before he was arrested.. Without a doubt, Pizarro's chair is even more dangerous than the benches of the Spanish First Division.

“Like other leaders of the left and right that we have seen in the region, it is easier for an authoritarian to consolidate his control through frequent elections and plebiscites, than with the support of the legislature,” envisions Polga-Hecimovich, for whom the great The challenge of the other powers “will be to maintain their autonomy and institutional independence before an executive that will seek to avoid horizontal accountability”.

It remains to be determined whether, if Fujimori wins, the process against her will go ahead or she will be protected by the shield that the Constitution grants to presidents.. Until now, judicial independence and the action of the Prosecutor's Office are exemplary in the region.