Asunción, March 23 (RHC-TeleSur)-- Paraguay's only progressive president in history Fernando Lugo, of the Guasu Front, said he was “fed up” with the delayed constitutional reform meant to allow former presidents to run again for office, and that he planned to present his candidacy regardless of whether the reform was passed.

“As for me, the (amendment) is already dead, out of date. It does not make sense anymore,” Lugo said, adding that he would run again for president.   The country's electoral tribunal (TSJE) barred Fernando Lugo from running for president in 2018 which, according to his attorneys, amounts to "political persecution."

In February, the TSJE made the decision invoking the constitution on a request from the ruling right-wing Colorado Party filed last November.

According to Lugo's lawyers, the constitution bans the reelection of a president or vice president in office, but not for those who held that position in the past. Fernando Lugo was democratically elected as Paraguay' President in 2008. He was later ousted in 2012 in a parliamentary coup that was condemned by his supporters and progressive governments and forces in the region and around the world.

As president, Lugo met stiff opposition from the powerful political establishment in Paraguay, who hampered his efforts at nearly every turn and conspired to secure his ouster from the beginning of his presidency.