Peru’s interim president Manuel Merino resigned yesterday after five days in office.

Merino resigned after MPs pushed him to step down over two deaths during protests at the sudden ouster of his predecessor.

Peru’s citizens flocked into the streets to celebrate Merino’s resignation waving flags, chanting and banging pots.

However, his departure leaves the country in uncertainty and legal disarray as MPs now wrestle over who will take his place.

Congress is expected to hold a second vote in the evening after a first vote failed to garner majority support for the leftist lawmaker and human rights defender Rocio Silva-Santisteban to be designated, interim president.

Total calmness prevailed in Peru’s capital, Lima, as people awaited a decision on who would be the next head of state.

Clarisa Gomez, one of those who turned out to celebrate Merino’s resignation said that the lawmakers who put him in power should also pay.

“Merino has resigned because his hands are stained with blood, with the blood of our children,” said Gomez.

The opposition-dominated Congress voted last Monday to remove Merino´s predecessor Martin Vizcarra as president, over bribery accusations he denies. Lawmakers met on Sunday afternoon to determine the next president, or, at least, how one might be chosen.

In a televised speech, Merino, the former head of Congress who had led the push to impeach Vizcarra, asked his cabinet to stay on to help in the transition. He called his resignation “irrevocable” and urged peace and unity.

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