Ecuadorian Vice President Verónica Abad filed a complaint for gender-based political violence in the Electoral Contentious Court against the head of state, Daniel Noboa, an advisor to the ambassador to Israel confirmed yesterday, Monday, to the media Ecuavisa.com.
The complaint, also addressed to Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld, Vice Minister Esteban Torres and advisor Diana Jácome, was filed last Thursday (08.08.2024).
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 actions on this issue will be very clear in the coming days, and I hope that it will have the due support of a conscious people,” said the vice president of Ecuador that day.
Political gender violence, a serious violation
Political gender violence is considered a very serious electoral violation, according to the Code of Democracy, and can be punished with a fine from 21 basic unified salaries to 70 basic unified salaries, dismissal and/or suspension of participation rights from two to four years.
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.
The surprise dispatch of Noboa as ambassador to Israel at the end of 2023 showed Noboa’s distancing from the campaign to the second round, a breakup for which Abad recently commented that he finds no explanation.
Abad said she felt “exiled” and 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.
Lawsuit against Abad
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.
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