Runner-up in Peru’s presidential runoff pushes for new constituent assembly

Roberto Sanchez, a left-wing congressman whose plans to overhaul the mining sector have sparked investor concerns, ​will face conservative frontrunner Keiko Fujimori in Peru's June 7 presidential runoff (...). Running for the leftist Together for Peru party, Sanchez, 57, emerged as a surprise contender in a crowded first-round race, calling for a new constitution ​to establish a "plurinational" state and courting disaffected rural and Indigenous voters. Ahead of the April vote, Sanchez told Reuters that Peru needed a new beginning. "We want a new ​social contract, a plurinational state that recognizes the true face of Peru," he said. Central to Sanchez's platform is a proposal to convene a constituent ⁠assembly to draft a new constitution, replacing the current charter adopted in the 1990s under the late President Alberto Fujimori, the father of his runoff rival. Sanchez has said the existing system ​has failed to deliver equality, so he plans to put the question of constitutional change to a referendum (...). Sanchez says Congress has stripped citizens of the right to call referendums and has rewritten large parts of the constitution without public consent.
Read the full article here: Reuters