Last Friday YASunidos environmental group, which seeks to call a referendum to prevent oil extraction in the Yasuni National Park, received a notification from the Electoral Crime Tribunal (TCE for its Spanish acronym) which denied the appeal filed by the group compared to signature verification results of the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Pablo Piedra, a member of the legal department of YASunidos, said the refusal of the Court is gross, unjustified, rude and disloyal with the citizens because the notification was made on Friday night when Ecuador was playing its soccer match against Honduras regarding the World Cup. Moreover Julio Cesar Trujillo, another legal representative of the group, says that the TCE seized the soccer game to notify the judgment. “They want to lower the profile of the news.”
Because of that, YASunidos has requested the TCE for a clarification on the legal arguments in which the denial of the the appeal was based. According to the TCE, the group did not timely submit the petition and therefore the application was dismissed. But the environmentalists say the time to apply is 3 working days, while the TCE and the CNE argue that the time is three calendar days from the notification date.
The regulation is effective and was approved by the TCE itself, what we hope is a timely response, said Piedra.
