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Peru parliament votes to impeach president over leaked tapes

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LIMA: Peru’s Congress on Friday voted to open impeachment proceedings against President Martin Vizcarra for “moral incapacity” over accusations he tried to obstruct a corruption probe against government officials.


The motion was approved by 65 votes, with 36 against and 24 abstentions. Fifty-two votes were required to open the proceedings early next week.


To remove the president, who lacks a party, 87 votes are required. After Vizcarra appears in Congress next Friday to defend himself, the plenary will debate and vote.


Six out of nine parties — representing 95 of the 130 seats in Congress — have backed the motion.


“I’m not going to quit. I do not run’’, Vizcarra said in a televised address ahead of the vote in which he denied any wrongdoing.


“We are facing a plot against democracy’’, he said, adding that he had nothing to hide but that lawmakers should act “with caution, with responsibility, and to take the decision they deem necessary’’. Vizcarra, in power since 2018, came under fire after leaked audio recordings in which he is heard telling aides to hide details of his office’s controversial hiring of a popular singer as a paid cultural adviser. In the event of impeachment, legislative speaker Manuel Merino will act as interim leader until the current presidential term ends in July 2021.


Vizcarra has won popular support for an anti-corruption crusade that has put him at loggerheads with opponents in Congress, including over a reform banning convicted criminals from standing for election.


The impeachment motion is reminiscent of the one that forced the resignation of his predecessor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2018, after he became embroiled in the Odebrecht bribes scandal. — AFP


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