Peruvian President Pedro Castillo dissolved the nation’s Congress on Wednesday and called for new legislative elections, beating lawmakers to the punch as they prepared to debate a third attempt to remove him from office.

Castillo also installed a new emergency government and called in a televised address for the next round of lawmakers to develop a new Constitution for the Andean nation.

Meanwhile, he said he would rule by decree, and ordered a nightly curfew starting on Wednesday night. In a public address, Castillo called on all citizens to turn in their firearms — a move that political leaders across the spectrum and constitutional experts were quick to denounce as a coup attempt.

“We have taken the decision to establish a government of exception, to re-establish the rule of law and democracy to which effect the following measures are dictated: to dissolve Congress temporarily, to install a government of exceptional emergency, to call to the shortest term possible to elections for a new Congress with the ability to draft a new Constitution,” Castillo said.

The announcement echoed a move by President Alberto Fujimori, who was elected democratically in 1990 and then two years later staged a coup with the support of the military and ruled as a dictator until 2000.

Omar Cairo, a constitutional lawyer who considered the impeachment vote illegal and has been sympathetic to Castillo’s position, said, “Congress is still contemptible, but what Castillo has done is a manifest coup d’état.”

Last month, Castillo threatened to dissolve Congress using a manoeuvre and local media outlets recently reported that he tried to survey military leaders about supporting such a move.

New York Times News Service and AP/PTI