The Board of Directors of the Legislature of the Parliament of Ecuador has approved this Monday with five votes in favor and two abstentions that the requirements to approve the request to open an impeachment trial against President Guillermo Lasso for corruption are met.
The decision was taken after an hour of debate in the Parliament after which the president of the National Assembly, Virgilio Saquicela; the first vice president, Marcela Holguín; the second vice president, Darwin Pereira, and the members Esteban Torres and Ronny Aleaga voted in favor of the procedure.
Members Nathalie Arias (Creo), of the ruling party, and Johana Moreira, of the Democratic Left (ID), abstained, reports the newspaper ‘El Comercio’.
Pereira explained that the request will be transferred on Tuesday to the Constitutional Court so that it may issue an admissibility opinion within six days.
If it is favorable, the procedure returns to the Assembly and will be sent to the Control Commission, table in which a new report will be made, non-binding for the plenary. For the vote in the Assembly, 92 votes in favor will be required.
The National Assembly approved last March 4 with 104 votes in favor and 18 against the report of the occasional commission that recommended to open an impeachment trial against Lasso, a report based on an investigation of alleged corruption facts that implicate Lasso’s entourage in the so-called ‘Encuentro Case’, also known as ‘El Gran Padrino’.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
