Fujimori to Put His Plans Before Voters : Peru: President says he’ll call plebiscite in 6 months on his coup against the constitution.

LIMA, Peru — President Alberto Fujimori said Sunday that he will call a plebiscite within six months to seek voter approval for his coup against the constitution last week.

Fujimori said his goal is the establishment of an “authentic democracy, and we want to do it in the shortest time possible.”

He promised that a new constitution will also be submitted to a vote in the planned plebiscite, and he said he will stay in power until the end of his term in July, 1995.

Asked in a television interview whether a new congress would be elected by then to replace the one he dissolved, the president replied, “Undoubtedly.”

Fujimori seized authoritarian powers with military backing April 5.

“By all means, on this I insist, the first plebiscite will be held within the first six months, hopefully in the shortest term possible as permitted by the organization of the national elections panel,” Fujimori said.

In his coup, Fujimori also closed Peruvian courts and fired 13 Supreme Court justices, saying the court system was politicized and corrupt. He said he will appoint a commission of Supreme Court justices to reform the court system, although he will reserve veto power.

He indicated that a new congress will have only about half the number of seats in the dissolved congress, but he gave no other details on his plans for the legislative branch.

Recognizing that his actions had violated Peru’s 1979 constitution, Fujimori declared: “What we have done is against the system--we have broken the oppressive and unjust system.”

But he observed that several public opinion polls in the last week have indicated overwhelming popular support for the move. And he said rights guaranteed by the constitution will be strictly observed, including freedom of the press.

The Fujimori regime censored the media in the first two days after the coup and put several politicians under arrest, but it has lifted the censorship and freed the politicians.