Ecuador’s democratic system broke new ground on May 17th, amidst the uncertainty that reigns among citizens. Yes OK President Guillermo Lasso used an article in the current constitution (popularly known as “cross death”), who called for early parliamentary elections, is the first time this has been called in the Andean country.
The beginning took place on this Tuesday, the 16th Impeachment proceedings that could lead to Conservative President’s removal from office, elected in 2018. Lasso attended the session and spoke to the country from the National Assembly. However, journalist and analyst César Ricaurte claimed that there was no clarity as to how many votes the party could garner against Lasso Correísmo, the political movement led by former President Rafael Correa of Belgium (2007-2017) and from the most radical sector of the indigenous movement and even from the conservative Social Christian Party.
Lasso did not wait for the National Assembly to meet again on May 17, as he was unsure of the correlation of the votes. At least 92 votes were needed to remove the President from officeof a total of 137 lawmakers in a chamber where Correísmo has forged alliances to oversee both the policy and the Strategic Oversight Commission that reviews corruption cases.
Lasso had hinted that he could use the constitutional mechanism, This provides that in the event of major institutional crises, the head of state can dissolve parliament and also end his presidency, allowing general elections to be held to re-elect the executive and legislature.
Although The president took the dissolution of the legislature for granted and said the country should prepare for new parliamentary elections later this year, awaiting an opinion from the Constitutional Court of Ecuador.
Lasso’s former ally, the Social Christian Party, announced that it would ask the court to find Lasso’s decree of so-called cross-death unconstitutional. From Belgium, where he lives as a fugitive from Ecuadorian justice, Rafael Correa said that while the president’s announcement could be illegal, “Ecuador has the ability to send Lasso home with new elections.”
For his part, former Ecuadorian Vice President Alberto Dahik defended the decision: “Crucifixion is a constitutional power with a great deal of discretion for the President of the Republic and he has exercised it. The lack of governability of the last two years plus the untenable conflict made Ecuador’s progress impossible.
According to the former Vice President Parliamentary elections could be a democratic solution to the current crisis.
For his part Lasso claimed it was “the best decision to find a constitutional solution to the crisis”. and to restore to the Ecuadorian people the power to decide their future in elections.
“There is no evidence of political responsibility for the crime of embezzlement,” was one of the conclusions of the May 6 meeting of the supervisory commission, which ended without an agreement. On this basis, the journalist Ricaurte told DIARIO DE CUBA that the case against Lasso did not find much support.
After other allegations had been ruled out, the parliamentary group around former President Rafael Correa put the multi-million dollar contract between the state oil transport company FLOPEC and the offshore company Amazonas Tanker Pool on the table.
“It’s about the oil transport, which even goes back to the Correa era (2007-2017), then it was renewed with the government of Lenín Moreno, and basically Lasso maintained this contract,” explains the journalist, who reported the absence patent a compelling reason justifying the removal of the President.
The president assured that parliamentarians insisted on continuing the trial against him even though they “couldn’t find any evidence against me because there’s nothing to find”.
For Lasso, there was a “boundless” attack on his management. According to César Ricaurte, director of Fundamedios, Correísmo and the extremist sections of the indigenous movement have been undermining the conservative president’s government practically since he took office two years ago.
In addition, he has been in office for a period of four years since the beginning of his term in May 2021. Lasso met with fierce legislative opposition that it has frequently rejected its key government projects, which in practice has deadlocked its governance.
After the President’s announcement that he would invoke crucifixion, the head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Ecuador, Nelson Proaño, was very quick to issue a statement, indicating that both the military institution and the police supported the measure, and urged them all over the country to respect it.