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Peruvian President Dina Bolwarte responded early this morning to the demands of protesters and announced in a televised address that he would send a proposal to Congress to hold the election at an earlier date, the Associated Press reported.

Bolhuarte's decision was announced amid thousands of demonstrations that have continued in Peru, demanding that she resign and that elections be called to choose a new president and a new legislature.

The protests have already taken their toll.

There have been at least two deaths in a remote area in the Andes, authorities said.

Bolwarte said he would propose holding a general election in April 2024.

At the height of the political crisis, many demonstrators are demanding the release from custody of center-left President Pedro Castillo, ousted by lawmakers last Wednesday after he tried to dissolve Congress before it voted to impeach him.

Two victims in protests demanding elections in Peru

Hundreds of people protested in the capital, Lima, and riot police used tear gas to disperse them.

The protests rocking Peru are fiercest in rural areas, a stronghold of Castillo, a former rural school teacher and political novice who hails from a poor mountain region in the Andes.

Protesters set fire to a police station, vandalized a small airport used by the armed forces and marched through the streets.

The death of a 15-year-old boy who died from injuries sustained during a protest in a remote village in the Andes prompted Congresswoman Maria Taipe Coronado to make a heartfelt plea for Boluarte to step down.

Vice President Bolwarte, 60, was hastily sworn in to replace Castillo, hours after he stunned the country by ordering the dissolution of Congress, which in turn removed him from office for "persistent moral incapacity" to carry out his duties.

Castillo was arrested on charges of rioting.

Castillo's botched move came hours before the opposition-dominated Congress held a third impeachment vote against him.

Since then, protests in Peru have continued in various parts of the country.

In the past 6 years, Peru has had six presidents, including three in just one week in 2020 when Congress exercised its impeachment power.