Ecuador: Lenin Moreno Leaves the Party That Took Him to Power

Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno Wednesday resigned from the 'Alianza Pais' Party shortly after this organization decided to expel him over its failure in the Feb. 7 elections.

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Moreno, who reached power with Alianza Pais in 2017, presented the resignation request before the National Electoral Council (CNE) while this institution was processing his expulsion from the Party.

"He is leaving the movement to avoid expulsion. The next step will be to flee the country," Alianza Pais President Diego Fuentes assured and added that his party will be "restructured to rescue its political identity."

Ecuador's President broke with Alianza Pais after the defeat it suffered in the past elections, in which the party's candidate Ximena Peña only reached 1.54 percent of the votes.

In 2006, when Moreno still presented himself as a "leftist politician",  he founded Alianza Pais with former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

After years of political confrontation between them both, Correa left the movement to support the Union for Hope Alliance (UNES), whose Presidential candidate Andres Arauz won the first round of elections on February 7.

Moreno's departure from Alianza Pais also comes amid criticism for his mishandling of the pandemic and the irregular and slow vaccination process.