Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Kuczynski posed with his cabinet before tendering his resignation

Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has quit over a vote-buying scandal.

He has denied wrongdoing but said on Wednesday that he did not want to be an obstacle to the country's development.

Party leaders in Congress later agreed to accept President Kuczynski's resignation. He had been facing an impeachment vote on Thursday.

Pressure has been growing after footage emerged of his allies offering opposition politicians financial rewards if they backed him in the vote.

Is he gone for good now?

Congress still has to vote on whether to accept President Kuczynski's resignation. Lawmakers will meet on Thursday to discuss the issue and are expected to put it to a vote later on Thursday or Friday.

Even before the vote-buying allegations emerged, a majority of lawmakers had indicated that they would vote in favour of his impeachment on grounds of him allegedly being "morally unfit" to hold office.

It is therefore hard to see how he could survive politically. In fact, members of Congress, especially his most bitter rivals, could still decide to plough ahead with the impeachment regardless of his offer to resign.

What exactly toppled him?

After months of allegations of corruption against Mr Kuczynski, what forced him to tender his resignation were highly damaging secretly filmed videos and audios.

They apparently show his allies trying to persuade members of Congress to back Mr Kuczynski in the impeachment vote which had been scheduled for Thursday.

In exchange, the members of Congress were offered lucrative public works projects for their constituencies.

The release of the recordings, just two days before the impeachment vote, piled on pressure on the already beleaguered president.

Lawmakers from his own party withdrew their support and Mr Kuczynski resigned on Wednesday.

What did he say?

President Kuczynski defended himself in a televised message, saying the video footage had been edited to incriminate him.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Kuczynski made the announcement in a pre-recorded speech broadcast on TV

"The opposition has tried to paint me as a corrupt person and they have managed to influence a group of reasonable and honest workers around me, getting them unfairly involved in this plot to destroy the government," he said.

"I categorically reject these unsubstantiated claims and reaffirm my commitment to an honest, moral and fair Peru for everyone."

"I've worked for nearly 60 years of my life with complete honesty," the 79-year-old leader said. "Faced with this difficult situation... I think it is best for the country if I resign from the presidency of the republic.

"I don't want the country or my family to continue to suffer the uncertainty of recent times."

What uncertainty is he referring to?

Mr Kuczynski has already been through one impeachment vote. In December, his opponents wanted to remove him for allegedly receiving illegal payments from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

That time, he held onto power by a slim margin after Kenji Fujimori and a small number of other lawmakers broke away from the opposition to back him. But Mr Kuczynski's victory did not last long.

His decision just three days later to pardon Kenji Fujimori's father, former President Alberto Fujimori, was widely decried as a political deal, even though Mr Kuczynski insisted it was on humanitarian grounds.

It caused outrage among many Peruvians who believe Fujimori should stay in jail, where he was serving a lengthy sentence for authorising killings carried out by death squads.

In the wake of the pardon, President Kuczynski's approval rating fell from 26% in November to 19% in January, one poll suggested.

What next?

Members of Congress will vote on whether to accept Mr Kuczynski's resignation. According to the Peruvian Constitution, First Vice-President Martín Vizcarra will become acting president in his place.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Martín Vizcarra is expected to replace Mr Kuczynski

Mr Vizcarra has said he is ready to put himself at the service of the country and is returning from Canada, where he was serving as Peru's ambassador. He could be sworn in as early as Friday.

A former governor of a mining-rich province, the 55-year-old is seen as business-friendly but some Peruvians have questioned whether he has the political experience to handle the presidency at a time of crisis.

Some lawmakers have already expressed their support for Mr Vizcarra to allow for an orderly transition, but Peru's Congress is deeply divided and it is not certain whether he will be able to unite lawmakers behind him for long.

To add to the pressure on the president-to-be, Peru will be hosting the Summit of the Americas in three week's time, which US President Donald Trump has said he will attend.

And what will happen to Mr Kuczynski?

Mr Kuczynski enjoys presidential immunity until Mr Vizcarra is sworn in. But with allegations of corruption against him mounting, he could face trial after he ceases to be president.

Mr Kuczynski has denied any wrongdoing and has promised to co-operate with an investigation into his connections to Odebrecht but prosecutors are taking no chances. On Wednesday, they asked asked a judge to bar Mr Kuczynski from leaving Peru.</s>LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's Vice President Martin Vizcarra will be sworn in as president, likely at around 11 a.m. or noon on Friday (1600-1700 GMT), after current President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered his resignation ahead of an impeachment vote, the head of Congress said.

Luis Galarreta, an opposition lawmaker who is the current president of Congress, told a press conference on Wednesday that all of the country's legislative blocs had agreed to accept Kuczynski's resignation in a plenary session on Thursday.

 Kuczynski offered to step down earlier on Thursday as it looked nearly impossible for him to survive a vote to oust him after the opposition released videos that appeared to show his allies offering public work contracts in exchange for political support. Kuczynski denied wrongdoing and blamed the opposition for seeking to depict him as corrupt. 

 

 (Reporting by Teresa Cespedes; Editing by James Dalgleish)</s>Peru’s president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, has offered his resignation after secret video recordings entangled him in a new corruption scandal on the eve of an impeachment vote, plunging one of Latin America’s steadiest economies into a political crisis.



It was unclear if the opposition-controlled congress would accept his resignation or proceed with a vote on Thursday to force him from office. 



Just 19 months into his five-year mandate Kuczynski would be the first sitting president in Latin America to be forced out due to links to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which has been at the centre of continent’s biggest corruption scandal.



Kuczynski resigned as lawmakers prepared to vote for the second time in three months on whether to oust the 79-year-old leader from office for “permanent moral unfitness” in a plenary session of Congress. He is accused of repeatedly lying about decade-old business ties to the Brazilian firm.

But the release on Tuesday night of secretly recorded videos allegedly showing the president’s supporters attempting to buy political support ended any possibility that Kuczysnki could survive the attempt to force him out.

The videos released by Peru’s biggest opposition party, Fuerza Popular, allegedly show key allies of the president offering lawmakers a share of public work projects in return for help in defeating a previous impeachment motion against Kuczynski in December 2017.



The video clips shown in a news conference feature a government official explaining to a lawmaker how to make easy money from government projects for his region, while congressman Kenji Fujimori, assures him of government protection.

Government ministers have denied contracts were awarded in exchange for political support and announced they would fire the official. Kenji Fujimori also denied wrongdoing, saying the recordings were a reflection of typical negotiations to get infrastructure projects off the ground.

Although Kuczynski, known as PPK, was not directly implicated in the alleged vote buying, his increasingly battered credibility could not survive a further scandal.

The Oxford and Princeton-educated former banker who promised to modernise Peru is the first victim of a unfolding corruption scandal which has implicated most of the country’s main political players.

“The parliamentary majority worked against PPK from day one,” said Eduardo Dargent, a political scientist at Lima’s Catholic University.

“But he too must take responsibility for his downfall. His business interests, his lack of transparency, his lack of political manouevring to distance himself from the Odebrecht scandal.

“In many ways, he dug his own grave.”</s>Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said his resignation was "the best thing for the country".</s>LIMA, Peru—President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a market-friendly leader and one of Washington’s allies in Latin America, resigned Wednesday after a secretly recorded video appeared to show his allies trying to buy off an opposition lawmaker to sway a coming impeachment vote.

Mr. Kuczynski, 79, said in a televised speech he was stepping down. The move comes just 19 months after he took office and in the wake of allegations of wrongdoing over his past business ties with Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht. Mr. Kuczynski was expected...</s>March 21 (UPI) -- Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski announced his resignation Wednesday amid an investigation into his connection to the Odebrecht corruption scandal.

Lawmakers have called on the president to step down for months after documents revealed Brazil-based Odebrecht paid $780,000 from 2004-07 to a consulting business set up by Kuczynski.

Last week, Kuczynski said he received a $700,000 payment from an Odebrect affiliate for contacts during a closed-door congressional hearing. The payment came between his time as prime minister and economy minister, and president, something critics said was a conflict of interest.

Even his prior supporters pushed him to resign in recent days amid allegations he attempted to reward members of Congress for their vote against his impeachment.

The 79-year-old is one of the highest-ranking politicians in Latin America to face downfall over the Odebrecht scandal. In a plea deal with the United States Justice Department last year, the construction firm acknowledged it paid nearly $800 million in bribes to secure infrastructure contracts, including $29 million to Peru during 2005 to 2014. The company was fined $2.6 billion over its role in the scandal.

Impeachment proceedings against Kuczynski were scheduled to begin Thursday.</s>Embattled President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered up his resignation Wednesday ahead of an impeachment vote, seeking to put an end to a debilitating political drama playing out just three weeks before the Andean nation is set to host U.S. President Donald Trump for a regional summit.

In a nationwide televised address, Kuczynski, with his cabinet standing behind him, said he didn’t want to become an obstacle to Peru’s development. But the former Wall Street investor lashed out at opponents led by the daughter of former strongman Alberto Fujimori for plotting his overthrow with damaging leaks of confidential documents that raised doubts about his integrity during his six-decade long career in private business.

“I don’t want my country, nor my family, to continue suffering through the uncertainty of recent times,” he said, adding that the campaign in favor of his removal had caused “enormous damage” to Peru’s democracy.

Congress must still accept his resignation before power can transfer to Vice President Martin Vizcarra, who is currently serving as Peru’s ambassador to Canada and wasn’t present for Kuczynski’s announcement. Some lawmakers were seeking to deny Kuczynski his one last act of government and demanded that he be prohibited from leaving the country.

Pressure has been building on Kuczynski to resign after the shock revelation Tuesday of secretly-shot videos in which several of the president’s allies were caught allegedly trying to buy the support of an opposition lawmaker to block the conservative leader’s impeachment.

The videos presented by the main opposition party purportedly show attempts by Kuczynski’s lawyer, a government official, and Fujimori’s son Kenji trying to convince the lawmaker to back the president in exchange for a hand in state contracts in his district.

Kuczynski said the videos had been heavily edited to smear him and recalled practices from “sad days of Peru’s history that we thought had been overcome.”

He was referring to Fujimori’s longtime spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who was known to secretly record himself paying cash bribes to media moguls, military officers and politicians in efforts to gain leverage over potential rivals and boost his almost unlimited power.

Kenji Fujimori led a group of rebellious lawmakers in December who defied his sister Keiko’s leadership of the Popular Force party to narrowly block Kuczynski’s removal. Days later, Kuczynski pardoned the feuding siblings’ father from a 25-year jail sentence for human rights abuses committed during his decade-long presidency.

A new impeachment vote had been scheduled to take place Thursday and Kuczynski was once again been scrambling for support — a task made harder by the release of the videos, which fueled calls from some of Kuczynski’s allies and members of his cabinet for the president to immediately resign.

Keiko Fujimori, who has publicly distanced herself from her father, accused Kuczynski of orchestrating the alleged vote-buying scheme. On Twitter Tuesday she regretted her younger brother’s appearance in one of the videos, which she said harkened back to “practices that have caused so much damage to Peru and our family.”

Kuczynski also referred to the dark past, saying it recalled “sad periods in Peru’s history that we thought had been overcome.

The videos released Tuesday portray the president’s allies trying to lure lawmaker Moises Mamani to their side with promises of lucrative contracts.

In one exchange, Freddy Aragon, the head of the government agency regulating firearms, tells Mamani that he stands to pocket 5 percent of future public works projects authorized by the executive branch in his district. In another, Kuczynski’s lawyer hands the waffling lawmaker the transportation minister’s cell phone.

“Those who’ve voted in favor of impeachment have all the doors closed to them,” Kenji Fujimori tells Mamani in one of the recordings.

Following the release of the videos, the government fired Aragon, dismissing his apparent misconduct as that of a low-ranking official.

“The government doesn’t buy people in Congress. That’s impossible,” said Prime Minister Mercedes Araoz on Tuesday, adding that Kuczynski’s removal would be a humiliating blow for Peru’s international reputation as it prepares to host Trump and regional leaders for the Summit of the Americas. “It’s true that everyone knocks on our door, they call and they even send us messages about their pet projects. But that’s a common practice because they are representing their districts.”

Kenji Fujimori said the tapes had been heavily edited to obscure the truth, and lashed out at his sister for “acting like a delinquent” in allegedly ordering the recording of his private conversations.

Amid all of the political intrigue, Peru’s chief prosecutor said he would open a criminal probe into the videos.

Kuczynski is accused of lying as president about $782,000 in payments his consulting firm received a decade earlier from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Odebrecht is at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal, having admitted to paying some $800 million in bribes to officials across Latin America, including $29 million to politicians in Peru.

The release of the videos came the same day as Kenji Fujimori announced he will start a new political party to compete in 2021 presidential elections.

Even the party’s name, Change 21, seemed destined to deepen the siblings’ split, harkening back to the elder Fujimori’s Change 90 campaign that in 1990 ushered the then-outsider into Peru’s top office.</s>Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned Wednesday after evidence emerged that that his allies tried to buy lawmakers' votes to avoid his impeachment, sources in the government confirmed to EFE.</s>Peru’s center-right President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski announced his resignation on Wednesday after vote-buying allegations ensnared him in a fresh scandal on the eve of an impeachment vote, capping months of political turmoil in one of Latin America’s most stable economies. Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker who once held U.S. citizenship, promised a “constitutional and orderly” transition of power to end what he described as a hostile political climate that had made governing nearly impossible.

But Kuczynski, who is expected to be replaced by Vice President Martin Vizcarra on Friday, denied allegations of wrongdoing and blamed the premature end of his five-year term on the right-wing opposition party that controls Congress.

“I’ve worked for nearly 60 years of my life with complete honesty. The opposition has tried to depict me as a corrupt person,” Kuczynski said in a pre-recorded video message to the nation that broadcast as he left the presidential palace.

But Kuczynski added, “I think what’s best for the country is for me to resign…I don’t want to be an obstacle for the nation’s search for a path to unity and harmony.”

Lawmakers agreed to accept Kuczynski’s resignation instead of moving forward with a vote scheduled for Thursday on whether to oust him on grounds he was “morally unfit” to govern, said the president of Congress, Luis Galarreta.

Galarreta said he would swear Vizcarra in as president at around midday Friday.

A former governor of a mining region who once helped secure community support for Anglo American Plc’s Quellaveco copper project, Vizcarra has served as Peru’s ambassador to Canada since September and is currently in Ottawa.

In recent days, Vizcarra has received public assurances from opposition lawmakers that they will support his government. But he will take office amid a fractured party, widespread disgust for elected officials in Peru and inherit economic growth that slowed to 2.5 percent last year.

Vizcarra, who turns 55 years old on Thursday, appealed to the public to pull through the crisis on Twitter. “I’m outraged by the current situation like the majority of Peruvians. But I’m convinced that together we can show that we can once more push forward.”

Kuczynski had been scheduled to welcome Donald Trump on the U.S. president’s first visit to Latin America next month, where many of the region’s leaders plan to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to enact democratic reforms.

A White House official, speaking on background, said Trump still plans to attend the summit.

Kuczynski’s resignation marked a spectacular downfall for a man who was elected less than two years ago amid hopes he would turbocharge growth while cleaning up government corruption and modernizing the Andean nation of some 30 million people.

Markets that had cheered Kuczynski’s rise to power rallied on news of his resignation on Wednesday, amid expectations it would end the political uncertainty that has shadowed Peru since the opposition first sought to oust Kuczynski in December.

Popular Force – the country’s most powerful opposition party – tried to impeach Kuczynski in December after revealing his company received money from Odebrecht – a Brazilian company at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal – while he held public office more than a decade ago.

Kuczynski unexpectedly stayed in power in December with the help of former autocratic Alberto Fujimori, whom he pardoned from a human rights sentence days later in what was widely seen as political payback.

Ahead of the new impeachment vote on Thursday, Popular Force released a raft of video and audio that appeared to show Kuczynski’s allies offering lucrative public work contracts to lawmakers in exchange for political support.

Kuczynski said the recordings had been edited unfairly as part of a campaign to discredit his government and stressed that no corruption allegation had been proven.</s>Peru's president has resigned after 19 months in office. Facing allegations of corruption and vote buying, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (koo-ZIN-ski) stepped down a day before the Peruvian congress planned to fire him.
Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigns amid a vote buying scandal.