Peru’s congress has elected José María Balcázar, an octogenarian leftist lawmaker who has defended child marriage, as the country’s interim president ahead of general elections in April.

Balcázar is Peru’s ninth president since 2016. The surprise election, in which Balcázar beat the favourite, María del Carmen Alva, a conservative, came after lawmakers voted to remove José Jerí as president on Tuesday after just four months in office, due to a scandal over secretive meetings with Chinese businessmen.

Balcázar, from the leftist Peru Libre party, was sworn in as Peru’s head of congress on Wednesday after a four-hour session in which none of the four candidates managed to get a simple majority and lawmakers voted to elect Balcázar over Alva in a second round of voting.

Balcázar’s election prompted finger pointing and recriminations among rightwing parties, as well as praise from sectors of the Peruvian political left.

Balcázar’s previous remarks expressing approval of sexual relations between girls aged 14 and male teachers have dominated Peruvian news coverage after his unexpected election.

In 2023, the former regional high court judge sparked controversy as the only lawmaker to criticise and vote against a measure to ban child marriage. He said the ban should be limited to those under 14 only.

“From the age of 14 onwards, there should be no impediment; everyone has sexual relations, [male] teachers with pupils, female teachers with pupils, and between pupils too. That’s fine,” he told journalists after the vote in congress. He later said his remarks had been taken out of context.

As the chair of the congressional education committee, he said it was common for teachers to have sex with their students, even saying the relations could be “beneficial” for the minor.

In a statement at the time, Peru’s women’s ministry strongly criticised his remarks as justifying “sexual violence against school-age children and adolescents, a painful and despicable situation that profoundly affects their overall wellbeing and fundamental rights”.

When questioned about those remarks in an interview for a national radio broadcaster on Thursday, Balcázar replied: “I will not change my mind, I am firm in my convictions.”

In addition, Balcázar has been investigated for allegedly embezzling funds when he was head of the bar association in his native region of Lambayeque. He was expelled from the association in 2022 after a disciplinary hearing.

Balcázar has gone on the record as saying he would release the jailed former leftist leader Pedro Castillo, who was sentenced by Peru’s supreme court in November to 11 years, five months and 15 days in prison for trying to disband congress and rule by decree in December 2022.

Balcázar is expected to preside over the country until 28 July, when a new president takes office. Peruvians will head to the polls on 12 April and a run-off vote is expected in June.

Amid fears that Balcázar could exceed his role in leading the country to the elections, pro-democracy, business and rights organisations called for restraint.

Álvaro Henzler, of the pro-democracy nonprofit group Transparencia Perú, said: “Out of respect for the stability of the country and in view of an exhausted citizenry, the new president’s mandate must be strictly limited to ensuring a transparent and orderly democratic transition and preventing a worsening of the institutional crisis we are currently experiencing.”