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With 105 votes in favor, the vacancy motion filed against the president due to accusations that he committed acts of corruption when he was governor of the southern province of Moquegua (2011-2014), exceeded the number of supports required by the Constitution (87 out of 130 deputies) and automatically opened the way to strip the president of his power.
The parliamentary resolution declared the “permanent moral incapacity of the president” and therefore “the vancancy of the Presidency of the Republic.”
Consequently, “the succession regime established in the Constitution” will be applied, which will be effective as soon as it is communicated to the president, Prime Minister Walter Martos or published in the official gazette, whichever comes first.
Thus, now the responsibility of the office of Presidency of the Republic will fall on the president of Congress, Manuel Merino, of the Popular Action political group.
This decision by Congress was surprising, because although it was known that many legislators were already thinking of forcing the removal of Vizcarra, everything seemed to indicate that they were still far from adding the necessary votes for the vacancy, as this process is known in Peru.
Vizcarra, as he had promised, appeared early in the morning on Monday in the debate to present his defense and there he categorically denied having received any type of bribery and harshly criticized that the impeachment process against him had been opened under accusations not corroborated by justice.
“There is no evidence of flagrancy of a crime, nor will there be because I have not committed a crime, I have not collected a bribe (…) They are false facts, not corroborated, an investigation process is just beginning, they are hypotheses,” said Vizcarra.
HOSTILE CONGRESS
However, the Congress, from practically all the benches, was very hostile to the president from the beginning, who was accused of “liar”, “immoral”, “corrupt” and of being in fact responsible for all the political instability that the country lives.
The deputies’ declarations were also constant, indicating that they would vote “for the country” and without considering “political calculations” or “media pressure”, all references to calls for calm and responsibility by the media, business associations and Civil society associations asked the congressmen to face the risk that the fall of the Executive Power could pose to the stability of the country.
The debate thus demonstrated the absolute political loneliness of the president, who did not have any official bench in the chamber and whom even the deputies who voted to keep him in power considered responsible for the acts for which he is accused.
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