Peru Vice President resigns, calls for elections to break deadlock

Peru'svicepresident Mercedes Araoz, resigned and called forelectionsTuesday, hours after parliament appointed her to lead the fight against thepresident's dissolution of the body amid a bitterdeadlockover corruption and appointments to the Supreme Court.

"I have decided to resign irrevocably from the position of Second ConstitutionalVicePresidentof the Republic," Mercedes Araoz wrote on Twitter alongside a resignation letter, adding she hoped for "generalelectionsin the shortest term."

But thousands poured into the streets of Lima and other cities in a show of support for Vizcarra, whose anti-graft drive is widely popular,with the armed forces and police confirming their backing of thepresidentand a dozen regional governors joining celebratory street protests.

"There's too much corruption. Too much of it without any shame. It's high time this happened, that there's a change," said protester Jenny Sanchez in Lima, as demonstrators waved flags saying "NewPeru."

The resignation of Araoz who had allied with supporters of corruption-tainted former opposition leader Keiko Fujimoricomes after the Organization of American States (OAS) refused to get involved in thePerupower dispute.

The body said Tuesday that it was up toPeru's Constitutional Court to decide on the legality of the dissolution and that it was "fair that the political polarization in the country will be resolved by the people at the polls."

A number of lawmakers were considering appealing to the court to revoke the dissolution, according to Congress speaker Pedro Olaechea.

Despite the heated stand-off,Peruwent about its business as usual on Tuesday, with the only noticeable change being heightened security around the government palace and Congress.

January elections

Vizcarra's call for fresh polls on January 26 was validated Tuesday bythe independent National Jury ofElections.

The upcoming polls will likely favour leftist parties like NuevoPeruand Frente Amplio, which supported the dissolution, political analyst Fernando Rospigliosi told AFP.

Under an electoral reform enacted last year, lawmakers cannot run for re-election.

A new Congress would only have a mandate until 2021, to complete the five-year period for which the dissolved Congress was elected.

Until theelections, legislative duties will fall to a 27-member Permanent Congressional Commission, 18 of whom are opposition lawmakers, led by Congress speaker Pedro Olaechea, who accuses Vizcarra of unlawfully seizing power.

Vizcarra has repeatedly clashed with Congress, which is dominated by the Popular Force party of Keiko Fujimori.

He had warned Congress on Sunday that he would dissolve the body if it denied him avoteof confidence Monday on reforming the method of appointing magistrates.

The move was aimed at preventing the opposition from taking control of the Supreme Court.

Stand-off

Peru's grinding political stand-off has its roots in the 2016 presidentialelection when banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski beat Keiko Fujimori.

Although she lost her bid for the presidency, her party won an overwhelming majority in Congress, eventually forcing Kuczynski's resignation last year amid a corruption scandal.

Kuczynski was replaced by Vizcarra, then firstvicepresident, who has vowed to clean up Peruvian politics.

Fujimori is the eldest daughter of disgraced formerpresidentAlberto Fujimori and is herself in prison awaiting trial after being accused of accepting $1.2 million in illicit party funding from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht for her 2011 presidential campaign.

The Supreme Court is currently debating whether to free Keiko oncePeru's most popular politician from pre-trial detention.

Odebrecht has admitted paying at least $29 million in bribes to Peruvian officials since 2004.

Three former presidents, including Kuczynski, are also being investigated over Odebrecht, while a fourth, Alan Garcia, committed suicide in April after police arrived at his house to arrest him for money laundering.