Peruvian lawmaker Francisco Sagasti was sworn in as interim president on Tuesday, voted for by Congress in an effort to return stability to a country that has seen deadly protests and the departure of two presidents over the last week. Peru’s interim President Manuel Merino had resigned after deadly crackdown on protesters. Merino, who had been a speaker of Congress, had been in the post  of President for a duration of less than a week.

Sagasti is a legislator from the centrist Purple Party, of which he is a founder member. He is expected to serve out his term until July next year, with a new presidential election scheduled for April 11 next year. He, as the new president of Peru, is the third person to hold the position in little more than a week. He has received 97 votes in favour and 26 against. His appointment came amid one of the country’s worst constitutional crises in recent decades, which started after the popular president Martin Vizcarra was ousted from office in a Congress vote last week. President Martin Vizcarra was removed by legislators on November 9. Merino, who was head of Congress, took his place the next day and faced immediate opposition from Peruvians who refused to recognize his authority. Vizcarra had initially faced opposition from the Fujimorist congress when pushing for the constitutional referendum in 2018, an election that resulted in laws prohibiting the private funding of political campaigns and a ban on reelecting lawmakers.

After Merino quit this Monday, congressional leaders had initially nominated Rocío Silva-Santisteban, a lawyer and poet from the leftist Broad Front party who would have become the country’s first female president but she received just 42 votes, as reported by the Associated Press. The move plunged the country into turmoil and led to violent protests in which two young men died. As a result of these demonstrations and the resignation of most of his cabinet, Manuel Merino, Mr. Vizcarra’s replacement, announced on Sunday that he was leaving the role five days after being sworn in.

Vizcarra was ousted by Congress after attempting to remove parliamentary immunity in his battle against corruption. Half of the lawmakers in the Peruvian political body were being investigated for various crimes. Vizcarra himself is under investigation for alleged bribery during his time as governor. Investigators had also opened a case against Merino over the deaths of the protesters.

Seven of Peru’s past eight presidents have been convicted, or are under investigation or have been implicated in major scandals.

Mr. Sagasti, 76, a former engineer and World Bank official, used his first address to Peru to pay homage to the men who had died. In his first words as president, Sagasti paid tribute to two men who were killed following a police crackdown on the protests, which erupted after what many saw as a parliamentary coup. He also called for calm in the Andean nation after protests.

“We cannot bring them back to life. But we can stop this from happening again,” he said.

Sagasti also spoke of the necessity for calm following his inauguration, telling Congress that it is absolutely necessary to remain calm, but not to confuse this with passivity, conformity, or resignation.

“The main thing for Peru is to regain stability and for this nightmare to end,” legislator Alberto de Belaunde, from Sagasti’s Partido Morado party told Reuters before the Monday vote.

Political analyst Augusto Alvarez Rodrich told news agency AFP that the management of the “coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery and conducting the April 11 general elections in a transparent manner” were the most pressing issues that the new president would have to deal with.

Peru had been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic with the world’s highest per capita death rate. It had set another grim record by becoming the first country to record more than 100 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. The South American country of 33 million had 33,577 confirmed deaths from Covid-19 as of October 15. With 105 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University, Peru led the world in the mortality metric ahead of Belgium with 90, and followed by Bolivia and Brazil with rates of 74 and 73 respectively.

Augusto Alvarez Rodrich said, “The country also suffers from a high level of distrust in political institutions. It was hoped that Sagasti would bring a moment of political and economic stability.”

Peru’s currency reacted positively to the news, rising around 1.75% on Tuesday, its biggest daily rise in seven months. The country’s sovereign bonds have also edged up.  The Andean country in South America is the world’s second-largest producer of copper, and has been hit hard this year with one of the world’s deadliest per capita outbreaks of COVID-19. In the context of the protests and the Covid19, Peru under Sagasti is expected to post its worst annual economic contraction in a century.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness