President Martín Vizcarra made the decision after the opposition refused to reform the method of designating the members of the Constitutional Court. A group of deputies responded by launching a presidential recall project.
Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra dissolved the Congress constitutionally on Monday, dominated by the opposition, after he refused to suspend a controversial appointment of new members of the Constitutional Court.
"I have decided to dissolve Congress and call parliamentary elections," Vizcarra said in a message to the country on television, as a clash of powers began three years ago and closed the path of understanding between the executive and legislative.
Vizcarra had launched an ultimatum to Congress on Sunday by announcing that he would dissolve it if he denied him a vote of confidence on Monday to reform the method of appointing magistrates, thereby seeking to prevent that high court from being taken over by the opposition.
But Congress, controlled by the Fujimorist opposition, decided on Monday to ignore its request and immediately begin the appointment of new magistrates.
"It is clear that the obstruction and armor (of Congress) does not cease and there will be no possible agreement," said the president, while hundreds of protesters gathered outside parliament were celebrating his decision.
A dissolution of the Congress in Peru did not occur since April 5, 1992, when the then president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) gave a "self-coup" and assumed full powers with the support of the armed forces. On this occasion, however, Vizcarra relied on the Constitution to take this step.
"In the face of factual denial of confidence, I decided to dissolve Congress and call congressional elections in the Republic," Vizcarra said, hours after parliamentary chiefs refused to suspend the questioned appointment of new Constitutional Court magistrates.
In her first reaction to the presidential announcement, Fujimorista lawmaker Jenny Vilcatoma proposed that Congress dismiss Vizcarra, something the opposition tried to do in 2017 with its predecessor.
"The acts of Martín Vizcarra show immoral conduct ... That is why we request that the permanent declaration of moral incapacity of the president be processed," said the legislator.
During a session plagued with incidents, Congress elected one of the magistrates amid protests that forced the five pending votes to be postponed until Tuesday.
A cousin of the president of Congress, lawyer Gonzalo Ortiz de Zevallos, was the first magistrate appointed in a questioned election in which he received 87 votes, the minimum necessary.
The vote took place despite the fact that six of the nine candidates for the Constitutional Court have complaints before the courts.
In addition to the government, independent jurists questioned the current selection mechanism because of its speed and lack of transparency.
Vizcarra had warned that if the legislators did not give up the appointment of the new court, they would consider it a refusal to vote for confidence, which would constitutionally entitle them to dissolve parliament.
The president has gained great po[CENSORED]rity by leading a crusade against corruption in a country where the previous four presidents were under the magnifying glass of the prosecution accused of receiving gifts from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
The tension had been growing since Friday and the police decreed "maximum alert", while Vizcarra supporters congregated at dusk in the streets.
The president of the Legislative, the opponent Pedro Olaechea, had ruled on Saturday that the election of the magistrates was "unplayable."
Vizcarra asked for the vote of confidence after Congress filed on Thursday its project to advance the elections for April 2020, which meant cutting off its mandate and that of the Legislative one year. The proposal was supported by 75% of Peruvians, according to surveys.
Opposition legislators did not want early elections, as they would risk their loose majority at a time when, according to the polls, they suffer great discredit. In addition, due to a Vizcarra reform ratified in a referendum in 2018, parliamentarians cannot be re-elected.
Keiko Resource
The Constitutional Court is responsible for interpreting the Magna Carta and acts as the last judicial instance in amparo remedies, such as the one presented so that Keiko Fujimori regains her freedom.
The opposition leader has been in preventive detention for 11 months for the scandal of the gifts of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht and the ruling on her appeal will be announced shortly by the court.
The political crisis has persisted in Peru since three years ago banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018) beat populist Keiko Fujimori tightly.
Although he lost the presidency, Alberto Fujimori's firstborn party won an overwhelming majority in Congress with which he kept Kuczynski on the ropes until he was forced to resign in 2018.