On October 29, the plenary of the Constitutional Court (CC) unanimously backed reviewing an appeal presented by the president of the Permanent Committee Pedro Olaechea against the dissolution of Congress undertaken by President Martín Vizcarra. Now, the Court must analyze and decide if Vizcarra acted or not in accordance with the Constitution. It is expected that, on November 4, the TC will publish the votes and arguments of its seven magistrates regarding the case. 

Meanwhile, during the same session, the Constitutional Court rejected and described as “inappropriate” the precautionary measure presented by Olaechea to momentarily suspend the dissolution of the Legislature. Olaechea had wanted the whole of Congress and not just its Permanent Committee to continue operating. But this was thrown out by five votes to two.  The magistrate in charge of deciding whether or not the Constitutional Court should allow the appeal to proceed, Carlos Ramos, pointed out that “the competential demand on the dissolution of Congress must be answered within a period of no more than 30 days”. Ramos also indicated that a meeting has already been scheduled to discuss the merits of the demand.

For its part, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers has stated that the Executive branch “respects” the decisions of the constitutional court. They also pointed out that the legislative elections scheduled for January 26, 2020 “are not up for debate”. “Elections must take place in a completely normal manner and citizens have nothing to worry about,” they said.