An Ecuadorian constitutional judge granted this Friday a precautionary measure to the country’s former vice president, Jorge Glas (2013-2018) that restores his political rights, lost after being sentenced for corruption.
The decision was adopted by Judge Jhon Rodriguez, of the Multicompetent Judicial Unit of the Yaguachi canton, of the coastal province of Guayas (southwest) through an order published by the local press on social networks.
In the order, the judge indicates that he decided to admit a request for precautionary measures presented by Glas’s defense.
By virtue of this, “the political rights of participation to elect and be elected and to participate in matters of public interest are restored to the engineer Jorge David Glas Espinel so that he can participate in the 2023 early elections respecting his constitutional rights,” the judge specified. in his ruling.
In this way, the way is opened for the former vice president to participate in the early presidential and legislative elections that Ecuador will hold on August 20.
The country will go to the polls again after the current president, Guillermo Lasso, decreed on May 17 the constitutional figure of the “cross death” with which he dissolved the National Assembly (Congress) and called for early elections.
Lasso, invoked serious political crisis and internal commotion to make this decision in the midst of a political trial that he was facing in the Legislative, where the opposition was seeking his dismissal.
The judge also ordered that the National Electoral Council be notified of its decision so that Glas is added to the electoral roll and the Ministry of Labor annuls the impediment to hold public office that weighs on the former official.
Glas was vice president between 2013 and 2017 in the Government of Rafael Correa and was re-elected to the position in February 2017 in tandem with former President Lenín Moreno, who removed him from office in January 2018.
The former vice president was sentenced to six and eight years in prison in two corruption cases, for illicit association and bribery, respectively; however, the penalties were unified.
The former official was accused of receiving bribes for 13.5 million dollars to benefit the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht with State contracts in five projects in strategic sectors, accusations that he denies and attributes to political persecution.
He turned himself in to justice on October 2, 2017 and was imprisoned for just over five years, since in November 2022 he was provisionally released from prison for a precautionary measure.
Glas is one of the most visible leaders of the Citizen Revolution (RC5), the progressive left-wing political movement led by former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), and the country’s leading political force.
The RC5 will announce its candidates for the extraordinary elections tomorrow, Saturday, at a national convention.