Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra dissolved Congress on Monday to end a yearlong battle with right-wing lawmakers over his anti-graft campaign, but rebel legislators refused to leave the chamber as protests against them started across the country, Reuters reports.

Peru's worst political crisis in two decades threatens unrest in the world's No.2 copper producer and one of the region's most robust economies, and could bring lawmaking to a halt.

"Peruvian people, we have done all we could," Vizcarra told the nation in a televised message. He vowed to call new legislative elections to let voters weigh in on a dispute he says has stymied his bid to stamp out graft in the ruling class.

Opposition representatives cried "Dictator" after Vizcarra invoked a constitutional article allowing presidents to dissolve Congress, and immediately voted to declare him temporarily suspended, naming Vice President Mercedes Araoz to replace him.

But a government source said their efforts were void, since Congress was already officially closed.

Vizcarra accused Popular Force, the opposition majority party led by jailed former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, of trying to use democratic institutions for personal gain.

The party has dragged its feet on passing his anti-corruption reforms and last week shelved his bill for a snap general election to end the impasse.

The last straw, Vizcarra said, was Congress' appointment on Monday of a new member to the top court, the Constitutional Tribunal, which would be the likely referee in a legal dispute between Congress and the government.

Proposed nominees for up to six of the tribunal's seven members had drawn fire for links to criminally-suspect judges.

"What happened in Congress underscores the shamelessness to which the parliamentary majority has fallen," Vizcarra added.

Peru's mining-powered economy has largely shrugged off increasing bouts of political turmoil in recent years, including the resignation last year of former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in a clash with Popular Force.

Kuczynski and Peru's three other most recent presidents have been ensnared in a massive bribery scandal involving Brazilian builder Odebrecht.

Fujimori, the daughter of former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori, is in pre-trial detention in a case related to Odebrecht.

The current constitutional crisis comes as economic growth has already been slowed sharply by the U.S.-China trade war.