Only 11 out of 100 Ecuadorians trust the current Congress

The latest opinion poll conducted in 14 cities in Ecuador reveals the Legislature's lack of credibility among citizens, according to pollster CEDATOS. The results indicate that only 11 out of 100 Ecuadorians approve the work of the National Assembly, and only 6 out of 100 trust the legislators word. The results appear after President Guillermo Lasso revealed the names of five assembly members who asked for economic benefits to vote for a law.

86% of Ecuadorians do not believe in the words of legislators, according to CEDATOS. The surveys were conducted in Quito, Ibarra, Latacunga, Ambato, Riobamba, Cuenca, Loja, Guayaquil, Manta, Portoviejo, Babahoyo, Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo and Nueva Loja, between March 14 and 17, almost 10 days before Lasso's statements. In total, 2,137 people were consulted.

The Executive and the National Assembly have not been able to build bridges to allow urgent economic laws to be processed that would allow compliance with the work plan proposed by the Lasso administration. This is considered the nerve point of the government that has only been in office for 10 months. The lack of political operators who can negotiate with legislators for the approval of bills would be the main weakness of Lasso, who has only 12 assembly members of his party in a 137-member Legislature.

Last week, after the investment stimulus bill was denied in the Legislative, Lasso asked the Attorney General's Office and the Internal Revenue Service to investigate certain political actors who would have requested benefits to vote in favor of the Executive Bill. With these actions, Lasso assured that he fulfills his “moral, political and legal obligation to bring the corruption of the National Assembly to the attention”.

In a letter sent to the Attorney General, Lasso indicates that legislators Rosa Cerda, Gisella Molina, Edgar Quezada, Celestino Chumpi and Cristian Yucailla, and the latter's adviser, Marcelo Rosero, called for “economic benefits for themselves in exchange for voting in favor of the aforementioned bill.” The legislators arrived at the congress under the cover of the indigenous party Pachakutik and belong to the congress bench. For the Ecuadorian president, what was requested by the assembly members “is extremely serious”, as he detailed in the letter sent from Carondelet, the seat of government.

Lasso posted on his social media that the investment bill did not get the 70 votes to pass because the Executive did not accept the blackmail of the legislators. Although he did not name names at the time, the president explained that some congressmen asked for positions, “hospitals, electricity companies, ministries” and other cash.

The accused legislators have reacted and said that it was an executive officer who offered them contracts in exchange for recording their vote in favor of the investment law. Ricardo Vanegas, from Pachakutik, has even stated that they will reveal the audios that show that the blackmail started from the Executive and not from his teammates. Assemblywoman Gisella Molina, for her part, said that she is trying to see “the positive” of Lasso's statement, because now Ecuadorians “will know his face” because he will appear “on national television”.

The president also asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate tax returns made by Xavier Hervas, former presidential candidate of the Democratic Left. In the letter to Marisol Andrade, director of the SRI, Lasso provides “formal and express instructions for thorough investigation of Hervas' tax returns. In his letter, Lasso assured that “this matter cannot be limited to the political, we must advance in the legal sphere, so I must note the following public information regarding citizen Xavier Hervas in order to be considered in the audit processes that have been initiated or initiated”.

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