Ecuador court confirms legality of dissolution of the Assembly

The Constitutional Court of Ecuador rejected on Thursday (May 18, 2023) actions against the dissolution of the country’s National Assembly. All 6 resolutions reviewed were unanimously rejected. Here’s the full of the communiqué (442 KB, in Spanish).

According to the document, the Constitutional Court “has no competence to pronounce on the verification and motivation of the cause of the serious political crisis and internal commotion invoked by the President of the Republic”. As a result, new elections must be called, with the likely date for the 1st round being August 20th.

After the decision, the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, published on your Twitter profile that “no judicial authority can pronounce on the verification and motivation of the cause of political crisis and internal commotion invoked in Executive Decree 741”, thatand decreed the dissolution of the Ecuadorian parliament.

UNDERSTAND THE CRISIS IN ECUADOR

Guillermo Lasso faced an impeachment process in the National Assembly since May 9. In the session, which had a quorum of 116 congressmen, 88 voted in favor of the trial, 23 voted against and 5 abstained. At the end of the voting, there was applause and shouts of “fora, Lasso”. The vote was scheduled for Saturday (20.May).

The leader of the deposition proposal is the left-wing movement Citizen Revolution, of the former president Rafael Correa. He is in exile in Belgium, where he was granted asylum after being sentenced to 8 years in prison for corruption.

The current president is accused of committing embezzlement in the management of the state-owned company Floppy (Ecuadorian Oil Fleet) in contracts signed between 2018 and 2020. He denies the corruption allegations and claims that the impeachment process against him is “unfounded”.

It was the 2nd impeachment attempt suffered by the representative in less than 1 year. In June 2022, Lasso was 8 votes away from being tried by the Ecuadorian Congress. At the time, the country was dealing with violent indigenous protests due to the high cost of living and a group of deputies presented a motion of dismissal due to serious social unrest.

On Wednesday (May 17), Lasso signed a decree that determined the dissolution of the country’s National Assembly and the calling of new general elections. It was the 1st time that the measure was invoked in the country.

After announcing the dissolution and calling for a new election, the Ecuadorian president stated, in the Twitterthat the measure was “the best decision to give a constitutional solution to the political crisis and internal commotion that Ecuador is facing”.

On the 5th (May 18), the president of the country’s CNE (National Electoral Council), Diana Atamaint, indicated that August 20, 2023 was a possible date for a 1st round of new elections. An eventual 2nd round would be held on 15 October. The calendar still needs to be approved by the council plenary and will be made official next Wednesday (May 24).