Peru may this weekend decide who will take on the unenviable task of leading the country out of political and social turmoil.
The country of 32 million people has recorded more than 1.6 million COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic and is still undergoing a deadly second wave.
It is regularly recording more than 8,000 new cases a day with a case-fatality ratio of 3.3 per cent, the third-highest in the world according to John Hopkins University.
Neighbouring Chile, with half a million fewer cases than Peru, on Monday made the decision to postpone a national vote due to COVID-19 concerns. But Peru is pressing on.
Why now?
A series of political scandals - which saw three presidents take office in less than a week last year - has meant the election cannot be postponed, according to Alberto Posso, director of RMIT’s Centre for International Development.
“There is a lot of fatigue in Latin America around the pandemic,” Professor Posso said. “Given what happened in November, with three presidents in one week, there wouldn’t be an appetite to leave an interim president, as popular as he may be, in power for that long.”
Almost all of Peru’s presidents have been impeached or probed for corruption over the past three decades.
A pro-government protestor during a protest near the Congress in Lima last year. Source: AP
The political situation deteriorated even further when it was revealed former president Martín Vizcarra and nearly 500 government officials received their COVID-19 vaccinations out of turn.
“Corruption begets corruption, and corrupt individuals are attracted to the system,” Professor Posso said.
He said the turmoil in November was the manifestation of a deeply corrupt system.
“I’ve spoken informally to politicians who said there is very little that can be done – it is how the system works. If there wasn’t corruption it would be very hard to get a road built or a hospital built.”
Voters divided
One of many disenfranchised voters is Tomy Fuentes, who told SBS News from Chiclayo, Peru, the events were disappointing and tiring.
“They only come to power to serve themselves,” he said. “They look after their own interests and don’t serve the population that put them there.”
According to Latino Barómetro, a leading authority on voter trust in the region, 85 per cent of Peruvians believe the government only works to help powerful groups. Eight per cent had confidence in their congress – the lowest level in Latin America.
But at least one voter appears more optimistic for change.
Lima-based university student Andrea Mendívil said an election needs to happen. Peru has a culture of machismo, she said, and she wants people to respect difference and the fact that everyone should have the same rights.
“There has been a rise in femicides because of people staying home,” she said. “We need a liberal president to close the gaps between social-economic classes and genders.”
Who is in the running?
The race is wide open for the 18 candidates, with frontrunner Yohny Lescano attracting just over 10 per cent of support.
Among the other presidential hopefuls is former footballer George Forsyth, who is targeting Peru’s disenfranchised youth, and progressive Verónika Mendoza, who came third in the country’s last election.
If no candidate achieves more than 50 per cent of Sunday’s vote, there will be another runoff election, which is looking increasingly likely.
Presidential candidate George Forsyth campaigns in Manchay on the outskirts of Lima. Source: AP
Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández, a senior lecturer in Latin American studies at the University of Sydney, said a return to the status quo will not help people access basic services or fix Peru’s uneven distribution of wealth.
“These recent scandals were just another turn of the screw for those who lack trust in the political class,” he said.
And it's not the only country in the region holding an election amid the pandemic. Andean neighbour Ecuador will hold a national election at the same time as Peru.
Ecuador is not undergoing a health emergency or political turmoil to the same extent, but Dr Angosto-Ferrández says its election could deliver a rejection of the neoliberal economic model and a return to the left-leaning movement known as the ‘pink tide’ in South America.
“Ecuador shows that governments of the pink tide present Latin Americans with a model of government that for the first time in many decades presents alternatives to politics as usual,” he said.
“Ecuadorians have a compass to navigate the political turmoil that the Peruvian citizenry lacks.”
