By Alexandra Valencia
QUITO (Reuters) -Ecuador's&nbsp;President&nbsp;Guillermo&nbsp;Lasso&nbsp;dissolved the&nbsp;National&nbsp;Assembly&nbsp;by decree on Wednesday, bringing forward legislative and&nbsp;presidential&nbsp;elections&nbsp;and heading off an attempt by opposition politicians to impeach him.
Police and military decked in riot gear guarded the&nbsp;National&nbsp;Assembly&nbsp;building from behind barricades in capital Quito, allowing no one inside.
Opposition politicians wanted to impeach&nbsp;Lasso&nbsp;over accusations he disregarded warnings of embezzlement related to a contract at state-owned oil transportation company Flopec, charges the&nbsp;president&nbsp;denies.
A majority of lawmakers had backed a resolution accusing&nbsp;Lasso&nbsp;of allowing the corrupt contract to continue after taking office in 2021, although a congressional oversight committee, which heard testimony from opposition lawmakers, officials, and&nbsp;Lasso's lawyer, said in its report it did not recommend impeachment.
Lasso&nbsp;says the impeachment process - the first against an&nbsp;Ecuadorean&nbsp;president&nbsp;in decades - is politically motivated and has sparked a grave crisis that has threatened democracy. The dissolution was necessary, he said.
"This is a democratic decision, not only because it is constitutional, but because it returns the power to the&nbsp;Ecuadorean people ... to decide their future in the next&nbsp;elections,"&nbsp;Lasso&nbsp;said in a video broadcast.
The turmoil in&nbsp;Ecuador&nbsp;is the latest episode of volatility in a region that saw Peru's former&nbsp;President&nbsp;Pedro Castillo removed from office in a December impeachment trial and arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress.
Ecuador&nbsp;sovereign bond prices tumbled on the news, which spooked investors with worries over increased uncertainty and fears the market-friendly&nbsp;Lasso&nbsp;could be replaced.&nbsp;
Lasso's decision prompted an outcry from Indigenous and leftist groups - some of who said they would take the matter to the streets in protest - while opposition politicians questioned the legality of the move.
Citing the crisis and inability to govern,&nbsp;Lasso&nbsp;invoked the constitution's so-called "two-way death" provision, which allows the&nbsp;president&nbsp;to call&nbsp;elections&nbsp;for both his post and the&nbsp;assembly&nbsp;under certain circumstances, including if actions by the legislature are blocking the functioning of government.
According to the constitution, he will now remain in office and rule by decree.
Ecuador's electoral court has until May 24 to call new&nbsp;elections, which must take place within 90 days, Diana Ataimaint, the court's&nbsp;president, told journalists, adding that&nbsp;Lasso&nbsp;is free to run.
Those voted into power in the&nbsp;early&nbsp;elections&nbsp;would serve until the regularly-scheduled 2025&nbsp;elections&nbsp;take place.
ARMED FORCES 'UPHOLD CONSTITUTION'
Ecuador's military and police "have and will uphold their absolute respect for the constitution and law," Nelson Proano, commander of&nbsp;Ecuador's armed forces, said in a video statement, adding that&nbsp;Lasso's decision to dissolve the&nbsp;assembly&nbsp;was enshrined under the constitution.
The&nbsp;Ecuador&nbsp;Business Committee, which includes most of the country's industry associations, in a statement said the dissolution was constitutional and called for calm.
Opposition lawmakers called the dissolution illegal, though some belonging to the party of ex-President&nbsp;Rafael Correa - who was convicted of corruption and is living in exile - said&nbsp;elections&nbsp;were the only way out of the crisis.
Some opposition politicians presented a motion to the country's top court in a bid to block the dissolution.
Virgilio Saquicela, the former&nbsp;president&nbsp;of the&nbsp;National&nbsp;Assembly&nbsp;who was re-elected to the post just last week and had allowed the impeachment process to go ahead, demanded&nbsp;Ecuador's top court immediately rule on demands brought by opposition politicians to block the dissolution.
"We demand the Constitutional Court act, they are the guarantors of the constitution, they are the ones that have to resolve (the matter)," he told journalists, adding&nbsp;Lasso&nbsp;had "tampered" with the country's constitution.
Leonidas Iza,&nbsp;president&nbsp;of&nbsp;Ecuador's largest Indigenous organization, CONAIE, said in a video message that&nbsp;Lasso's decision was "dictatorial," adding that CONAIE had called a meeting to analyze the situation.
"We call on all of&nbsp;Ecuador&nbsp;to be vigilant and reject another undemocratic act by&nbsp;Lasso&nbsp;and his ministers, which is intended to violate the democratic order," Iza said in a video message broadcast via social media.
Last year, CONAIE led protests throughout&nbsp;Ecuador&nbsp;that almost unseated&nbsp;Lasso.
Lasso&nbsp;has repeatedly stressed the Flopec contract he is accused of turning a blind eye to was signed years before he took office and that his administration made changes to the contract on advice from&nbsp;Ecuador's comptroller to benefit the state.
Ninety-two votes out of 137 in the&nbsp;National&nbsp;Assembly&nbsp;would have been needed to impeach&nbsp;Lasso. A vote to move forward with the process last week received 88 votes out of 116 legislators present.
(Reporting by Alexandra ValenciaAdditional reporting by Karen Toro in Quito; Writing by Oliver Griffin and Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Christina Fincher, Rosalba O'Brien and Sonali Paul)

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Ecuador president Lasso dissolves National Assembly, triggers early elections