2024-05-08 17:39:47
The Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) is evaluating the legal possibility of carrying out a total renewal in the National Electoral Council (CNE), at the same time that it begins the process of challenges for the position of Public Defender.
The decisions to continue with these contests were approved during the Plenary session held on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.
Unanimously, the Plenary decided that the Legal Coordination of the organization would issue a report in three days on the viability of merging the CNE renewal contest, going from partial to total. Councilor Juan Esteban Guarderas expressed that “the country cannot afford the waste of what, for example, identical parallel processes would mean.”
He argued that the partial renewal of the CNE should have been carried out in 2021, but now overlaps with the total renewal, scheduled for November 2024, when the main and alternate members complete their six-year term. He explained that carrying out successive or parallel processes would result in applicants for both contests and two citizen selection commissions evaluating the same files.
During the plenary session of the Cpccs, tensions arose when counselor Johanna Verdezoto rejected the accusations of her colleague, Yadira Saltos, on social networks, about an alleged conflict of interest in the competition for the Public Defender. Verdezoto expressed her annoyance, indicating that her honor was tarnished without even having been consulted on the matter and accused Saltos of politicizing the issue in the Assembly. Councilor Abraham Verduga also criticized Saltos for not appearing before the Assembly after being formally notified. Given this, Verdezoto warned Verduga not to delve deeper into the issue. However, in the end, there was no move to file a file on this issue.
The Plenary Session of the CPCCS approved the call for citizen challenges within the contest to appoint the first authority of the Public Defender’s Office.
After completing the admission, merit evaluation and opposition evaluation stages, the following applicants will advance to the citizen challenge phase: Jorge Cristóbal Ballesteros Crossbowmen, Rodrigo Daniel Frías Toral, Margarita Virginia Gualotuña Cruz, Byron Javier Guillen Zambrano, Ricardo Wladimir Morales Sail, Wilson William Ortega Caicedo, Ines Maritza Romero Estevez, Jorge Hannibal Torres Farinango and Yolanda Magdalena Yerovi Walnuts.
Citizens and social organizations will have the opportunity to present challenges if they consider that the applicants have failed to comply with legal requirements, lack of probity or suitability, presence of any of the prohibitions and disqualifications, omission of relevant information for the application for office, as well as the falsification or alteration of documents for said purpose.
Meanwhile, the Plenary Session of the CPCCS will proceed to file a complaint with the State Attorney General’s Office regarding the threats directed at the members of the Citizen Selection Commission in charge of carrying out the competition of merits and opposition for the selection and appointment of the maximum representative of the Public Defender’s Office.