Fifty-two deputies in Peru's Chamber of Deputies have voted against a request from President Keiko Fujimori's government for special legislative powers, as eight committees have issued reports on the proposal.
The rejections have come from lawmakers in the opposition parties Juntos por el Peru, Ahora Nacion, Partido del Buen Gobierno and Obras. But the last two parties have produced dissenting votes that could still shift the outcome, after some of their members backed or abstained on the government's request.
In the Defense Committee, which approved a report declaring it viable to grant the Executive the powers, Buen Gobierno deputies Luis Quispe Candia and Edwin Espinoza voted in favor of the document, breaking with their bloc. Obras deputies Maximo Peralta and Andrea Medina took a similar dissenting stance, choosing to abstain rather than vote against the report.
Support for the government also emerged within Ricardo Belmont's party. In the Environment Committee, Medina abstained while Jeeny Samanez voted in favor of the report declaring the powers viable. With the vote tied, committee chair Arturo Alegria, a member of Fujimori's Fuerza Popular, cast the deciding vote to approve it.
The votes still needed
With 52 votes currently against the request, opponents need at least 66 to reject it outright, 14 more than they have now. Eight of those additional votes are expected from Ahora Nacion and Juntos por el Peru, both of which have already declared their opposition. The remaining six would have to come from Obras and Buen Gobierno, neither of which has fully joined the rejection.
If the Constitution, Regulation and Foreign Relations Committee approves the request, the full Chamber of Deputies will decide its fate. Of the chamber's 130 members, 32 belong to Buen Gobierno and Obras. Without their support, the 42-member left-leaning bloc of Ahora Nacion and Juntos por el Peru could not match the 56 votes held by the right-leaning bloc of Renovacion Popular and Fuerza Popular.
Four committees still to vote
Eight committees have already issued opinions on the powers request. Four more have yet to take a position: Economy, Banking, Finance and Financial Intelligence; Agrarian Development; Consumer Protection and Regulation of Public Services; and State Management Modernization and the Comptroller General's Office. Each must set its own schedule for taking up the request in the coming days.
The Economy Committee is due to debate its report on Monday, September 14. It is the only committee chaired by Ahora Nacion, one of the main opposition parties; its board also includes Rosangella Barbaran of Fuerza Popular and Juan Cabrera Nieto of Obras.
That committee covers some of the request's central provisions, including changes to the customs framework that the government says would cut the time and cost of foreign trade, and amendments to the Works for Taxes law to cover disaster-risk management projects, civil defense infrastructure and simplified emergency investment.
None of the three other pending committees is chaired by Fujimori's party. The closest is the State Management Modernization and Comptroller's Office Committee, led by Paola Martinez Paitan of Renovacion Popular. The remaining committees have not yet set dates to debate their reports.
Buen Gobierno's shifting position
Jorge Nieto, leader of Buen Gobierno, has changed his stance on the request more than once. He initially said he would support it, but recently said his party's bench was considering withholding its backing.
The shift followed comments from Senator Martha Chavez, who said in an interview that the Senate could approve the entire powers request without the cuts made by the Chamber of Deputies. Nieto said his party would not back a proposal that meant disregarding the Senate's own rules or the limits set by the constitution, and he questioned attempts to approve the request without considering any changes the Chamber of Deputies eventually makes.
Nieto, a former presidential candidate, said Fujimori's government had other tools available to carry out its measures and did not depend solely on the delegation of powers. He recalled having to respond to an emergency during the El Nino weather phenomenon without such powers, pointing to emergency decrees as an alternative.
Speaking to radio station RPP, Nieto said his party was reconsidering its position after Chavez and another senior senator said they would not recognize the Senate's rules or enforce the safeguards they contain. He said that, as things stood, his party could not be asked to violate Article 104 of the constitution, which sets out how the Executive's request for powers must be handled.
He also said that during her campaign, Fujimori had pledged to act from the first minute, but that the promise had since become conditional on being granted legislative powers, and he repeated that he had faced the El Nino emergency without such powers himself.
Chavez responded on social media, accusing Nieto of looking for excuses. She said Nieto lacked the courage to admit where he stood and denied ever saying Fuerza Popular would not recognize the Senate's rules, asking whether the Senate would have to comply if left-wing forces decided to seize property.
