Step by step: the political trial against Guillermo Lasso in Ecuador will be developed

the Constitutional Court of Ecuador issued Partial Admissibility Rule to officially start isolation against the president of that country, William Lasso. Congress, which leads its practical opposition, must abide by the judges’ rulings and can politically judge the president for allegedly embezzlement of public money. the others Two concussion charges were not accepted by the judges.

However, there are still some steps that need to be taken before the lasso can defend himself before the legislature. The process, according to current regulations, can take a while between 45 and 60 days. With these deadlines, Laso could spend his second year in office and then face impeachment.

Once the Constitutional Court has formally notified the parties of the decision, the process will be up to Congress. In the legislature, the members of the Legislative Administration Council (CAL) will know, at no more than three days’ notice, which body has the highest power within the National Assembly. The university’s board of directors announced that it will meet on Friday, March 31, at 9:30 am (local time) to hear the judges’ opinion.

After the session, the CAL will send the documents to the Committee on Oversight and Political Oversight, which shall prepare and submit to the Assembly President a report on the reasons for recommending or not prosecuting the President. The report must be known by the plenary. This committee will also notify President Laso so that he can prepare his defence, and present his response to the accusations and evidence for his defence. The process can remain in commission for about 30 days.

Once the report is prepared and sent to the Speaker of the Legislature, it will be shared with other members of Congress and a plenary session will be held. In addition to the prosecution’s inclusion in the agenda, a list of Council members who will question the President will be required. According to the basic law of the legislative function, This process may take up to ten days.

The impeachment session takes several hours. According to political scientist Ariana Tanka Machiavello, the trial “can last more than 8 hours. The questioned council member has two hours to do it and the president has three hours to defend himself. Then the discussion begins.” In other words, the session can be divided into two days: a day for interrogation and a defense. post for discussion.

According to the regulations, Once the discussion is over, the Chairman of the Council convenes a new session within five days.so that a motion of censure and dismissal is voted upon. To remove the lasso, a qualified majority is needed, that is, 92 votes.

If the impeachment is approved by lawmakers, Vice President Alfredo Borrero must assume the presidency for the remaining two years of his term. In other words, no snap elections.

According to the opinion of the judiciary, Congress may prosecute the President for embezzlement only. In the event that the facts, conclusions and evidence of the concussion charges, which have been excluded by the Constitutional Court, are considered by the legislature, they will be in contempt if they use these arguments in the resolution they adopted but not in plenary. interventions.

The accusation of embezzlement that appears in the impeachment proceedings against Guillermo Laso refers to Ecuadorian Oil Fleet (Flopec) that signed contracts with Amazonas Tanker to transport crude oil. These contracts could have been signed due to pressure from the former Laso official, Hernan Locke. According to supporters, the president was aware of the damage these contracts were causing to the state and did nothing to prevent it. Embezzlement can be understood as: “the misuse, appropriation, distraction or arbitrary disposal of public resources”.

Laso argued before the Constitutional Court that Flopec’s contracts and irregular acts in them occurred between 2018 and 2020, when he was not yet ruling the country. However, supporters of the impeachment claim that Lasso deleted Move under his government so that these contracts do not continue to be valid.

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