Peru‘s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned Wednesday following the publication of videos showing the president’s allies trying to buy votes of other congress members to avoid his impeachment.
In his resignation address Kuczynski said: “In the middle of this climate and the second vacancy process, many congressmen have said that their vote responds to their conscience and not to a slogan. The only solution is for me to resign the presidency.”
The Peruvian leader’s impending resignation comes a less than a day after the country’s main opposition party revealed videos showing his allies allegedly trying to buy votes from other lawmakers in order to avoid an impeachment motion that was due Thursday.
Party spokespeople called on Kuczynski to resign Wednesday, saying that a vote on his impeachment due to take place on Thursday would move forward if the leader failed to step down.
The vote was proposed by the Popular Force opposition party, led by former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the country’s former dictator Alberto Fujimori.
In December, Kuczynski narrowly survived an impeachment motion over Odebrecht-related corruption allegations. He was accused of dissuading some opposition lawmakers from voting in favor of his removal by promising to pardon Alberto Fujimori, which he did a few days after the vote.