Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso could face an impeachment trial in the coming days after the country’s National Assembly voted on Tuesday to advance the case against him.
The opposition-controlled legislature voted to continue the debate by a simple majority of 88 votes out of 116 present. A qualified majority of 92 seats out of a total of 132 would be necessary to obtain Lasso‘s deletion.
The vote deepens a long-simmering political crisis as Lasso appears poised for a showdown with an increasingly hostile Congress. The opposition and Lasso’s defense team will be able to present evidence before Congress.
Lasso, a millionaire and former banker, is accused by opposition MPs of corruption linked to contracts signed with the public oil transport company Flopec. He denied the charges and described them as politically motivated. The contracts in question were signed in 2018, three years before he took office.
Lasso’s lawyer, Edgar Neira, told the media that the decision lawmakers made on Tuesday was not constitutionally valid.
Government Minister Henry Cucalón wrote on Twitter that the lawsuit against Lasso “was born, developed and ended without evidence, without arguments and with serious legal loopholes. We strongly defend the right of Ecuadorians to live in a democracy”.
But Marcela Holguín, an opposition lawmaker and vice president of Congress, said in a statement after the vote that “all Ecuadorians will have won” with Lasso’s impeachment. “We will bring them an answer to the abandonment into which the miserable policies of the Lasso government have plunged us.”
At any time before his withdrawal, Lasso could dissolve Congress and call presidential and legislative elections under a clause in Ecuadorthe so-called “mutual death” constitution. In this scenario, he would rule by decree – overseen by the constitutional court – for six months while elections are held.
In a interview with the Financial Times last month he said he would activate the clause if Congress decides to withdraw it.
A report released Saturday by the assembly’s Judicial Review Committee concluded that it had “not been proven” that Lasso had “benefited or benefited third parties by misusing public funds”.
But the committee did not approve the non-binding report which recommended dropping the impeachment process, with five of the nine members voting against.
Lasso’s allies have said they have the votes to block impeachment, although Tuesday’s vote suggests he may struggle to survive.
The largest congress party – that of former President Rafael Correa, who lives in Belgium to avoid being imprisoned in Ecuador for corruption — said his 47 lawmakers would support Lasso’s removal. They all voted to continue the process on Tuesday.
The indigenous Pachakutik party, the second largest in the congress, is divided on the issue, with 12 votes to continue the candidacy and 11 absent from the vote.
The right-wing Social Christian Party, which broke with Lasso just before he took office in May 2021, also supports the president’s impeachment, although it has lost some of its members over it.
While not all lawmakers who backed Tuesday’s motion will necessarily support his impeachment, “today’s vote shows the opposition is not far off the votes required to get Lasso impeached,” Lasso said. Sebastián Hurtado, director of political risk consultancy Prófitas in Quito.
“The vote is clearly close and a lot can happen before impeachment, but I don’t think Lasso’s prospects have improved after today’s vote.”
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