Ecuador’s National Assembly on Tuesday opened an impeachment trial against President Guillermo Lasso in a second attempt to remove him from office in less than a year.
(Bloomberg) — Ecuador’s National Assembly on Tuesday opened an impeachment trial against President Guillermo Lasso in a second attempt to remove him from office in less than a year.
The former banker, who took office in mid-2021, last June fended off a bid by opposition parties and his conservative former allies to secure the 92 votes in the 137-member congress needed to replace him with Vice President Alfredo Borrero.
Lasso was expected to address the plenary at noon local time, vowing to end what he described via Twitter as “an irrational confrontation.”
Ecuador’s Constitutional Court in March ruled that to impeach the president, Lasso’s accusers needed to provide “minimum plausibility” of embezzlement to meet constitutional rules, whittling the charges against him to one single government contract.
The impeachment must observe the rule of law and due process, Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro said via Twitter.
“The principle must be to respect the constitutional mandates of presidents elected by popular vote,” he added.
The impeachment debate is expected to extend to the end of the week before a decision.
Lasso, who insists there is no proof of embezzlement, has said he would dissolve the congress, as he is allowed to do once during the first three years of his term, to avoid being removed. While triggering snap elections, this would allow him to govern by decree in the interim.
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