2024-08-15 23:34:34
The Electoral Disputes Tribunal (TCE) has admitted the complaint filed by Juan Esteban Guarderas against the Vice President of Ecuador, Verónica Abad, for a possible electoral violation.
According to the statement from the Contentious Court, the single oral hearing of evidence and arguments will take place on August 15 at 10:30 a.m. in the court auditorium in Quito.
The document indicates that if Abad does not appear on the date and time indicated and does not justify his absence, the hearing will be held in absentia, and his defense will be assumed by a public defender. If Guarderas does not appear, it will be considered that he has abandoned the complaint.
Guarderas, a member of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (Cpccs), filed the lawsuit for an alleged irregularity in the local elections of February last year, when Abad ran as a candidate for mayor of Cuenca. In June, Judge Fernando Muñoz of the TCE dismissed the first lawsuit filed by Guarderas, who decided to file it again.
Guarderas accuses Abad of campaigning outside the permitted period when she was a candidate for mayor of Cuenca. Abad has described these accusations as ridiculous. Guarderas hopes that Abad will be sanctioned and have her political rights withdrawn, which would prevent her from holding public office.