Guillermo Lasso has confirmed that he will not run in the upcoming presidential elections in Ecuador

The president of Ecuador, William Lassoannounced this Friday that he will not stand as a candidate in the early elections on August 20convened after his decision to dissolve the National Assembly (Parliament) in the midst of a political trial against him.

“I will not accept the candidacy for the presidency of the Republic in the next elections. I do it with a deep love for democracy and out of respect for the citizens,” the president said, announcing his decision on Twitter.

“When I decreed the dissolution of the National Assembly, I said it was a decision that allows me to restore the power to choose to citizens”, he said in a statement released from the Carondelet Palace, seat of the Presidency.

And he concluded: “In the coming months, I will devote myself to working twice as hard for you. For your well-being, for your prosperity. And everything that I had planned to do in two years, I will do my best to be able to complete it in six months.”

Previously, the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), Leónidas Iza, also withdrew from his candidacy for the presidency and the organization announced that it will not have a candidate or form alliances with any political force.

This announcement comes days after Conaie and Pachakutik, its political arm, agreed to work towards unifying the lists and eventually a formula for August 23rd.

The “unity agreement” consisted of “working together to finalize the applications”, according to a document signed by the respective national coordinators.

But after a few meetings, the bases of Conaie – the Ecuarunari, the indigenous groups of the Costa and the Confeniae – decided to withdraw Iza’s candidacy in the presidential elections, assessing that “the conditions are not met”.

One possibility was that Iza and former MP Salvador Quispe contested the nomination, but now CONAIE has announced it will not support any candidate and will not forge alliances with another party, according to the announcement at a conference, broadcast on its Twitter account. ‘organization .

The powerful Ecuadorian indigenous movement is in fact going through a moment of rupture because Yaku Pérez will run as a candidate in August, on behalf of an alliance of three forces: Somos Agua, Unidad Popular and Democracia Sí.

Pérez, former leader of Pachakutik, applied in 2021 for that label and finished third.

Ecuador will go to the polls on August 20, because President Lasso ordered the so-called “cross-death”, which involved the dissolution of the National Assembly and the calling of new elections.

Whoever wins the electoral process, which foresees a possible second round for October 15, will complete Lasso’s mandate until 2025.

The president’s decision to dissolve Congress came as that legislature was waging a political trial against him for misappropriation of public funds in contracts to transport oil between the state-owned company Flopec and Amazonas Tankers, an alliance of businesses.

According to the indictment, although Lasso had been warned that the contract was harmful to the country, with damages to the state estimated at 6.1 million dollars, according to the State Comptroller General’s Office, the president would not have suspended the agreement.