Quito.-Ecuadorian Vice President Verónica Abad has filed a complaint for gender-based political violence in the Electoral Contentious Court against President Daniel Noboa, an advisor to the executive’s number two confirmed to Ecuavisa.com on Monday.
The complaint, also addressed to Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld, Vice Minister Esteban Torres and advisor Diana Jácome, was filed last Thursday.
Ecuavisa recalled that last week, during his appearance before the occasional legislative commission for the investigation of irregularities against the public administration, Abad had warned that he would take this action.
“My action on this issue will be very clear in the coming days, and I hope it will have the due support of a conscious people,” he said that day.
Political gender violence is considered a very serious electoral violation, according to the Code of Democracy, and can be punished with a fine of between 21 basic unified salaries and 70 basic unified salaries, dismissal and/or suspension of participation rights for between two and four years, he noted.
A judge at the Court will have to decide whether to admit the complaint from the second-in-command, who has been in a political tussle with Noboa since the beginning of the runoff election campaign.
Last Thursday, Noboa ordered Abad’s transfer to Turkey in light of the escalation of tensions in the Middle East, which jeopardize the safety of residents in Israel. The vice president was ambassador to that country.
The surprise posting of Noboa as ambassador to Israel at the end of 2023 showed her distancing from the campaign to the second round, a breakup for which Abad recently told EFE that she cannot find an explanation.
“It is something that we are still asking ourselves. The president has not been able to say, first of all, why he hates his vice president,” said Abad, who said she felt “exiled” and who has denounced “hostile” treatment by Noboa to allegedly pressure her to resign.
Abad has asserted that he will not resign from office and defends his right to temporarily assume the Presidency of Ecuador when Noboa must request leave to campaign for re-election in the 2025 general elections.
Last Friday, Noboa accepted the nomination of his political movement Acción Democrática Nacional (ADN) to run in the 2025 general elections, in which Ecuadorians will appoint their leader until 2029 and renew the National Assembly.
Abad faces before the Electoral Contentious Court, which has new authorities since Monday, a complaint filed against her by Juan Esteban Guarderas, member of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (Cpccs), for an alleged irregularity in the 2023 local elections, when Abad was running as a candidate for mayor of her city, Cuenca.
The single oral hearing of evidence and arguments in a case investigating an alleged electoral violation by Abad was scheduled for August 15, but has been postponed to a new date to be defined in order to complete the process of notifying Abad and guarantee the right to defense.
If found guilty, Abad would lose her political rights and would therefore be unable to hold public office.Clarín.
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2024-08-15 11:36:30