GUAYAQUIL (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa said in a decree on Tuesday that interim vice-president Cynthia Natalie Gellibert will serve as acting president from Thursday to Sunday so he can participate in campaigning for his re-election.
A debate about who would act as president if Noboa were to take time out for the campaign has made waves in the country amid a long-running spat between him and elected vice-president Veronica Abad.
Gellibert was named interim vice-president on Saturday, replacing a previously-named interim.
“It is necessary, to guarantee the principles of transparency, equity and judicial security, and also to comply with adequate use of public resources, in a voluntary way, to separate and differentiate the periods when the president of the republic exercises his functions and the times when he is absent temporarily from the post to conduct campaign activities,” the decree said.
Abad, who has also been serving as Ecuador’s ambassador to Israel, was suspended from her post by the labor ministry in November. The ministry accused her of committing a serious disciplinary offense by not complying with an order to travel to Turkey due to security concerns during the conflict in Gaza.
A court then overturned the suspension in December and the same day Noboa ordered Abad to go to Turkey to act as temporary counselor at the country’s embassy there.
Noboa named an interim vice-president last week, saying the measure would be in place until Abad arrives in Turkey.
Over the weekend Abad said she had every right to assume the presidency on Sunday, when the election campaign officially began, and called on the military to back her, but the armed forces said in a statement they would uphold the constitution.
Noboa, elected in 2023 to finish his predecessor’s term, says his policies have reduced violence in the country, which saw a sharp uptick in crime after the COVID-19 pandemic. But some Ecuadoreans and rights groups have decried what they say are military overreach and rights violations.
The election is February 9.
(Reporting by Yury Garcia; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb)
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