Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso on Friday declined to be a candidate for the same position in early general elections on August 20, to be held after the president dissolved Congress to avoid being ousted in impeachment.
“After deep reflection, I want to announce that I will not accept the nomination for the Presidency of the Republic for the August elections,” said the right-wing president in a speech offered in the courtyards of the Executive headquarters in Quito.
“This is by no means an end point” for his government, which began in May 2021 and whose four-year period will end by whoever wins the elections, he added.
Lasso applied the Constitution to dissolve the unicameral National Assembly on May 17 in the face of a “serious political crisis and internal commotion,” which led to the call for early elections. During the last days of his administration, work “is going to redouble,” said the unpopular 67-year-old president.
Lasso used the so-called “cross death” in the midst of a political trial promoted by the opposition Parliament, in which sectors of the left accused him of alleged embezzlement in a contract for the transportation of crude oil.
“It doesn’t make any sense for me to campaign when the country needs me dedicated to the citizens, when there are still goals to achieve and challenges to overcome,” Lasso said.
In the framework of violent indigenous protests due to the high cost of living, the Legislature had already tried in June 2022 to dismiss the president. However, it did not gather enough votes (92 out of 137).
Despite the violence linked to drug trafficking and political instability, Ecuador remains calm after the dissolution of Parliament, which also lacked credibility. Acceptance of the president fell to 10% and Congress to 2% at the beginning of May, according to the private polling firm Perfiles de Opinión.
Lasso won the 2021 elections with the aim of burying the left after the dozen online electoral victories of former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), who is in asylum in Belgium. However, the lack of legislative support and social protests diminished the image and field of action of the Government of him, whose maximum achievement is the massive vaccination against COVID-19 in record time.
The deadline for the registration of candidates expires on June 10, and so far no one has done so for the Presidency. This Friday, the head of the largest indigenous organization (CONAIE), Leonidas Iza, also refused to run, arguing that Pachakutik – the political arm of the group – is fragmented.