Since the post for Vice President was declared vacant on January 3, the presidency of Ecuador had the power to send nominations to the National Assembly to elect the new vice president.

This is because the president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, took away the functions of the office on August 3, and by legal mandate had to let 90 days go by to declare the vice president as absent in his position and begin the procedure to be name his replacement.

In this case, a list of three women was sent to as candidates, who were María Alejandra Vicuña, the Housing Minister and the Acting Vice President since August; María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Minister of International Relations; and, Rosana Alvarado Carrión, Minister of Justice.

During the weekend, the National Assembly addressed the nominations that the Executive Branch had sent and, with the favourable vote of 70 legislators, appointed María Alejandra Vicuña Muñoz as the new vice president, replacing Jorge Glas. The new Vicepresident will hold this position until May 24, 2021.

The new Vice President

María Alejandra Vicuña Muñoz is a Clinical Psychologist graduated from the University of Guayaquil and graduated with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Guayaquil in agreement with the University of La Plata, Argentina. In the current period of President Moreno, she was appointed Minister of Urban Development and Housing and was entrusted with the leadership of the Mission House for All, an emblematic program of the central government.

As for her political career, she has held different public positions. She was deputy of the ruling party Alianza País in the 2009-2013 and 2013-2017 periods. In Congress, she served as Vice President of the Right to Health Committee and was a member of the specialised committees that dealt with laws for constitutional amendments, the guarantee of the rights of persons with disabilities and intercultural education.

The impeachment process falls to Jorge Glas in the National Assembly

After the Supervisory Commission was notified of what had been done in the premises of the National Assembly, the Supervisory Commission declared itself incompetent to continue the impeachment of Jorge Glas, which was based on a judicial conviction for illicit association with Odebtecht.

This is because Glas had ceased to be vice president, and the national Constitution only allows the procedure to be applied to a Vice President in office, as mentioned in article 129.