Peru (country)

A

Executive

Executive power is vested in a president elected by universal suffrage to a five-year term. Presidents may serve no more than two consecutive terms. Two vice presidents are also elected. The president is assisted by an appointed Cabinet of Ministers.

B

Legislature

A single-chamber congress serves as Peru’s legislature. It comprises 120 members elected to five-year terms.

C

Judiciary

The Peruvian Supreme Court, which sits in Lima, consists of a president and 12 other judges. The judiciary also includes superior courts as well as courts of first instance.

D

Political Parties

Presidential and legislative elections in the 1990s were dominated by candidates of the center-right Change 90 movement, formed in 1989 to support the presidential candidacy of Alberto Fujimori; the Democratic Front, known as Fredemo, established in 1988 as a center-right coalition; and the leftist American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), founded in 1924. In 1999 Change 90 allied with several other pro-Fujimori parties to form Peru 2000. Possible Peru, a center-left party led by Alejandro Toledo, emerged as an important group in 2000.

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E

Local Government

Peru is divided for administrative purposes into 25 regional departments, each with a president who resides in the departmental capital.

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