The Court liquidates correísta amendments

Ecuadornews:

The decision took time, but it arrived. Yesterday, the Constitutional Court declared inadmissible the amendments that President Rafael Correa promoted and that were approved by the legislative majority of Alianza PAIS, in 2015.

What topics were revoked? According to EXPRESO, the content of 14 of the 15 amendments is now unconstitutional. Communication as a public service is an example.

According to Correa and his legislative caucus, the communication was “a public service that is provided through public, private and community media.” The above attempts against international treaties that consider it a right.

The assembly member of the Christian Social Party, Cristina Reyes, was one of the plaintiffs of article 384 of the Constitution -where the term public service was incorporated-. For her, that designation is a legal aberration that subtracts rights from Ecuadorians.

Five of the nine judges of the Constitutional Court approved, in addition, that the Office of the Comptroller retr ieve the functions of control of the management of public officials. The PAIS amendments limited the work of the state control body to the review of public resources.

The now fugitive former Comptroller, Carlos Polit, demanded the change for the padlock that put the work of the bureaucrats. His successor, Pablo Celi, continued insisting to the Court to process the claim. “As Comptroller of the State, I have been demanding from the beginning of my administration, the restitution of this faculty, because it is fundamental for the fulfillment of the control functions and whose absence favored its weakening by limiting the scope of the audits,” he said. The last insistence to the Court was last March.

The Armed Forces will also have changes. The amendments repealed yesterday established that “the Armed Forces have as their fundamental mission the defense of sovereignty and territorial integrity and, in addition, support the integral security of the State in accordance with the law.” That is, the internal control of the military was ordered.

The issue aroused suspicion and motivated demands because it was feared that the government would use the military discretionally. The decision also reinstates the special nature of the retirement pensions of police and military.

Even, the union organizations had a triumph yesterday. Geovanni Atarihuana, director of the Unidad Popular movement, pointed out that social movements can celebrate the return of labor rights. The special contracting and the union association disappeared from the public sector after the order of the former president.

After the decision of the Constitutional Court, which until the closing of this edition was not notified to all the plaintiffs, the compliance must be immediate according to the former judge of the organism, Antonio Gagliardo. “These should go to the Official Registry to be published and with that reform should be made in the legal texts.”

On December 3, 2015, the Assembly approved the amendments with 100 affirmative votes.

Against

Fernando Bustamante and members of the Social Christian Party voted against the amendments of Rafael Correa. The rest of the opposition left the session on December 3, 2015. The members of PAIS celebrated the decision.

Re-election

The amendments also established indefinite re-election for the popularly elected authorities. The demands came immediately, but the Constitutional Court did not address the issue yesterday because the measure was repealed by Popular Consultation.

The changes

The repeal includes, in addition, the changes in sectional governments for the call for popular consultation and the minimum age for application to the Presidency of the Republic. 14 of the 15 proposals. (I)

Source: http://www.expreso.ec/actualidad/corteconstitucional-alianzapais-enmiendas-contraloria-KD2306581