Peru votes in legislative elections key to president’s reform bid

Lima: Peruvians headed to the polls Sunday for legislative elections that President Martin Vizcarra hopes will put an end to a political crisis and clear the way for anti-corruption reforms. Polling stations opened throughout the country of 25 million people at 8:00 am (1300GMT) in an election called after Vizcarra dissolved parliament in September in a bid to overcome an impasse with the Keiko Fujimori-led opposition.

Voters in Lima queued up to vote long before the doors opened, AFP reporters at the scene said. The vote — the first time parliamentary elections have been held separately from presidential elections — comes just 15 months ahead of the next general election. Fujimori´s Popular Force party held an absolute majority in the single-chamber legislature with 73 out of 130 seats, but on Sunday they are expected to suffer a drubbing, largely due to a sprawling corruption scandal that has ensnared Fujimori. Fujimori is accused of accepting $1.2 million in illicit party funding from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht for her 2011 election campaign. Odebrecht has admitted to paying at least $29 million to Peruvian officials since 2004, and bribing four former Peruvian presidents. “Popular Force thinks it can win 20-25 congressmen, but compared with the absolute dominion it had, it will lose a lot,” analyst Luis Benavente, director of the Vox Populi consultancy, told AFP.

“Fujimorism will be the big loser in this election. Popular Force has been the major bloc in Congress since the last election in 2016, but Fujimori is expected to pay for the Odebrecht scandal.