President Daniel Noboa will campaign for re-election over the weekend.

On Tuesday morning, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa issued a decree announcing that Acting Vice President Cynthia Gellibert would assume the Presidency for four days.

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His decree specifies that the temporary assignment, which will last from 5:00 PM local time on January 9 to 4:59 PM on January 12, 2025, is due to a “force majeure circumstance.” However, the document does not clarify what that force majeure circumstance entails.

This decision comes just hours after presidential candidates Henry Cucalon (Construye Movement) and Henry Kronfle (Social Christian Party) demanded that the National Electoral Council (CNE) “take action” regarding Noboa’s failure to request a leave of absence to campaign for re-election for the 2025-2029 term.

These presidential candidates argue that Noboa has violated the Electoral Law, which stipulates that individuals seeking re-election to the same position must take an unpaid leave of absence from the start of the campaign period. The 2025 campaign officially began on Sunday.

In an attempt to justify Noboa’s actions, Interior Minister Jose de la Gasca stated that the president is not obligated to request leave because “no explicit rule” applies to his case. De la Gasca argued that “this is not a re-election case,” as Noboa is completing the term initially assigned to former President Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023), who left office after dissolving Parliament and calling for early general elections.

The assignment of the Ecuadorian presidency to Gellibert occurred despite the fact that the elected Vice President, Veronica Abad, had announced she would assume the presidency during Noboa’s absence, as stipulated by the Ecuadorian constitution and laws.

The silence maintained by electoral and constitutional authorities regarding these events, however, has prevented Abad from implementing her announcement. This silence has also enabled President Noboa to carry out actions that have been politically and legally contested.

Constitucional expert and lawyer Mauro Andino harshly criticized Noboa’s latest decree, describing it as “another absurdity and an attack on the constitutional state of rights and justice.”

“The Constitution’s Article 146 states: ‘In case of temporary absence from the Presidency of the Republic, the Vice President shall assume the role. Temporary absence is defined as illness or another force majeure circumstance that prevents the president from fulfilling their duties for a maximum period of three months, or leave granted by the National Assembly,’” Andino recalled.

“There is no room for interpretation. The rule is clear. Who holds the Vice Presidency? Veronica Abad. What is force majeure? It is an unforeseen, unavoidable event that disrupts obligations and exempts the affected party from responsibility—for instance, an earthquake, a fire, etc. Is there force majeure in Noboa’s case? NO,” Andino emphasized.

“What he is doing amounts to constitutional fraud. He is doing this precisely to avoid requesting leave from the National Assembly and to circumvent the Democracy Code’s Article 93,” he added.

teleSUR/ JF Sources: EFE – X

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