Pedro Alliana, president of the Chamber of Deputies, called an extraordinary session in the Lower House for Tuesday. The only item on the agenda will be to deal with the draft resolution that “Forms accusation before the Chamber of Senators against the Attorney General of the State, Sandra Quiñónez, for the purposes of the establishment of the political trial provided for in article 225 of the National Constitution ”.
Alliana belongs to the Chartist caucus that seeks to keep Quiñónez in office. So this call is for the purpose of sending the document to the file.
It should be remembered that Sandra Quiñónez was elected attorney general in March 2018. She will be in office for one more year. Therefore, if the request for impeachment is sent to the archive, there will no longer be another possibility of impeachment.
REACTIONS
“It takes us by surprise”
Norma Camacho, a national deputy for the Encuentro Nacional party (PEN), affirmed that the call for an extraordinary session was surprising. She explained that on Sunday, in the afternoon, she was summoned for Monday in the morning. However, both she and Kattya González, her bench partner, could not participate because they had been invited to a public hearing.
“The call was made by the presidency of the chamber. But at least it takes us by surprise. What I do know is that each deputy has his position. It is a topic that has been talked about for a long time. There is already a political position. This end of the year there will be a call for Quiñónez’s replacement, so with this the political trial will be filed, “he said.
“The Public Ministry does not represent society”
Sebastián Villarejo, national deputy for Patria Querida, expressed for his part that the session proposal comes from other sectors. So only tomorrow (for today), they will be able to see if they have a quorum and reject impeachment.
“More than ever, it will be possible to show precisely who are the deputies who prevented the use of such a necessary constitutional tool when we see a Public Ministry that does not represent society and has its eyes closed when it comes to certain groups or interests,” he said. .
“We don’t have the votes for impeachment”
Antonio Buzarquis, national deputy for the PLRA (bench “B”), affirmed that he was surprised by the call for an extraordinary session of the Chamber of Deputies to deal with the impeachment issue. He pointed out that after the last session, held last Wednesday, he is surprised that in less than a week the votes are available for his file.
“There is a formal, manifest and determined intention to send this to the archive. Nor do we have the votes for impeachment. And if they called a session, it is likely that they agreed on some things in the last few days (laughs).”
“We are far from having the numbers”
Celso Kennedy, deputy for the PLRA (bench “C”), pointed out that there is a possibility that the intentions of sending the document to the archive are more numerous than the number of votes they have for the effect. In other words, the legislator affirms that he still doubts that Quiñónez’s defenders have the necessary votes (41 are needed) to send the document to the file.
“We have enough arguments, but far from having the numbers. That was revealed last week. In the same way we will try not to find the quorum. We are going to speak with parliamentary colleagues”, he stated.