. In front of it, the famous
Tadolini's
Simon Bolivar statue in the
Plaza Bolívar.
19th century The first Peruvian Congress was installed in 1822 as the Constitutional Congress led by
Francisco Xavier de Luna Pizarro. In 1829, the government installed a bicameral Congress, made up by a
Senate and a
Chamber of Deputies. This system was interrupted a number of times by Constitutional Congresses that created new Constitutions every few years.
20th century The Deputies reunited in the Legislative Palace and the Senators went to the former
Peruvian Inquisition of Lima until 1930, when
Augusto B. Leguía was overthrown by
Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro. He installed a Constitutional Congress (1931–1933) that promulgated the Constitution of 1933. By order of the president, the
Peruvian Aprista Party members that were in Congress were arrested for their revolutionary doctrines against the government. When Sánchez Cerro was assassinated in 1933 by an APRA member, General
Óscar R. Benavides took power and closed Congress until 1939, when
Manuel Prado Ugarteche was elected president. During various dictatorships, the Congress was interrupted by coups d'état. In 1968,
Juan Velasco Alvarado overthrew president
Fernando Belaúnde by a coup d'état, again closing Congress.
1979 constitution The 1979 Constitution was promulgated on 12 July 1979 by the Constitutional Assembly elected following 10 years of military rule and replaced the suspended 1933 Constitution. It became effective in 1980 with the re-election of deposed President
Fernando Belaúnde. It limited the president to a single five-year term and established a bicameral legislature consisting of a 60-member Senate (upper house) and a 180-member Chamber of Deputies (lower house). Members of both chambers were elected for five-year terms, running concurrently with that of the
president. Party-list
proportional representation was used for both chambers: on a regional basis for the Senate, and using the
D'Hondt method for the lower house. Members of both houses had to be Peruvian citizens, with a minimum age of 25 for deputies and 35 for
senators.
Move to unicameral body At the beginning of the 1990s, the bicameral congress had a low public approval rating. President
Alberto Fujimori did not have the majority in both chambers, the opposition led the Congress, impeding the power that Fujimori had as president. He made the decision of dissolving Congress by a self-coup to his government in 1992. Following the
self-coup, in which Congress was dissolved, the
Democratic Constitutional Congress established a single chamber of 120 members. The Democratic Constitutional Congress promulgated the 1993 Constitution in which gave more power to the President. The new
unicameral Congress started working in 1995, dominated by Fujimori's Congressmen that had the majority. The Congress permits a one-year term for a Congressman or Congresswoman to become President of Congress.
21st century Political crisis According to Walter Albán, head of
Transparency International Peru, the Congress of Peru has recently been infiltrated by criminal groups that obstruct reforms in order to maintain their status and
parliamentary immunity. During the presidencies of
Ollanta Humala,
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and
Martín Vizcarra, the right-wing Congress led by the daughter of the former Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori,
Keiko Fujimori, obstructed much of the actions performed by the presidents.
Fujimorists in Congress "earned a reputation as hardline obstructionists for blocking initiatives popular with Peruvians aimed at curbing the nation’s rampant corruption" according to the
Associated Press. Due to broadly interpreted
impeachment wording in the
Constitution of Peru (1993), Congress can impeach the president on the
vague grounds of "moral incapacity", effectively making the legislature more powerful than the executive branch. On 9 December 2018 in the
2018 Peruvian constitutional referendum promoted by President Vizcarra, voters accepted three of four of the proposals in the referendum, only rejecting the final proposal of creating a bicameral congress when Vizcarra withdrew his support when the Fujimorist-led congress manipulated the proposals contents which would have removed power from the presidency. The referendum also removed the immediate re-election of officeholders. triggering the
2019–2020 Peruvian constitutional crisis. Vizcarra issued a decree that set snap elections for 26 January 2020. The representatives served out the remainder of the original legislative term, which expired in July 2021. On 9 November 2020, Congress responded to Vizcarra, voting to
remove him from office based on allegations of bribery. Following the
2021 Peruvian general election,
far right parties, including
Go on Country, Popular Force and
Popular Renewal, gained control of Congress. An alliance led by
Popular Action member
María del Carmen Alva successfully gained control of Peru's Congress. After left-wing presidential candidate
Pedro Castillo won the presidency, Fujimori and her supporters made claims of
electoral fraud, leading
obstructionist efforts to overturn the election with support of citizens in Lima. From the beginning of his presidency, Castillo was targeted by Congress, whom made it clear that they wanted to remove him from office by impeachment. On 7 December 2022, Castillo
attempted to dissolve Congress, arguing that the legislative body, which had obstructed many of his policies, was serving
oligopolistic businesses and had colluded with the
Constitutional Court of Peru to undermine the executive branch, thereby creating a "congressional dictatorship". Castillo’s vice president,
Dina Boluarte, assumed the presidency amid the
widespread protests against her government. Following her ascension to the presidency, Boluarte aligned herself with the far-right Congress. In October 2025, Boluarte was removed from office by Congress on “moral incapacity” grounds amid mounting public anger over insecurity and corruption allegations. In his position in the
order of succession, president of Congress
José Jerí succeeded Boluarte, initially assumed the presidency leading into the 2026 elections. Jerí became Peru's seventh president in nine years. However, in February 2026, José Jerí was removed from office by Congress for holding undisclosed meetings with Zhihua Yang, a Chinese businessman under scrutiny from the Peruvian government. He was succeeded by
José María Balcázar, who was elected by Congress to serve as president of Congress and thus made president of Peru.
Return to bicameralism In March 2024, 91 out of 130 members of Congress voted to restore the Senate with the
general election of 2026. The reconstituted Senate will have 60 members each serving a five-year term. The Senate will have the power to appoint the presidents of the
Central Reserve Bank and the
Court of Auditors, among other offices. The Senate will also have the power of final approval over proposed legislation and will meet with the lower chamber in a joint session to approve budgets. Unlike the lower chamber, which is elected entirely by proportional representation, the Senate will have 30 members elected from individual departmental constituencies (Lima has four seats, the others one) and the remaining 30 elected proportionately nationwide. ==Membership==