President set to gain as Peru heads to polls

Bloomberg

Four months after the shock dissolution of Peru’s Congress, President Martin Vizcarra’s gamble looks set to pay off once new lawmakers are elected on Sunday.
Polls suggest the parliament will emerge more fractured but influenced by a set of centrist parties more open to the president’s path of political and judicial reform.
At the same time, the opposition movement founded by disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori, which has dominated Peruvian politics since 1990 and has been the most vocal force in challenging Vizcarra’s agenda in the single-chamber legislative body, is rudderless and polling at just 5%.
The results, if along the lines indicated by the polls, could lead to greater parliamentary backing for Vizcarra’s attempts to fix a moribund system that led to political stasis and had lost the trust of voters: back in September, crowds took the streets of Lima to cheer the demise of Congress.
“It’s another triumph for the president,” said Mirko Lauer, a Lima-based political analyst, who said such a result would be good for the governability of the country.
Vizcarra, who took over from scandal-plagued Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2018 after resigning amid his own clashes with congress, confronted Peru’s establishment following graft probes involving politicians from all camps. He pushed to clean up the judiciary and political parties, fueling epic battles with the opposition-controlled legislature that subsequently ended in its dissolution.
While a more balanced congress could help ease the political deadlock, it would also put Vizcarra under pressure to quickly advance with his agenda. The economy likely expanded just 2.2% last year, the slowest pace in a decade, amid sluggish infrastructure investment and falling copper exports with a president focused on solidifying his power.