Home > 4.5.1 Elections of the local executive body > Report on the Recall of Mayors and Local Elected Representatives
 
 
 
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Paragraph 53
 

In Ecuador, the recall is established in the national Constitution, recognising in Article 61, among the rights to participation, the right “to recall authorities elected by universal suffrage”, therefore also local mayors and members of local councils, elected by popular vote. Article 105 adds that “all persons, in the exercise of their political rights, will be able to recall elected authorities”. Since 2011, specific rules in the national electoral legislation and the legislation on citizens’ participation regulate the different aspects of the recall mechanism (initiative, conditions and grounds for recall, removal procedure). Under these rules, local voters are enabled to initiate the recall and remove the local authorities directly through their vote. The right to recall is however not unconditional: the electoral legislation provides that, upon registration, candidates (including for the position of mayor), must provide a work plan with general and specific objectives and ways to achieve them. According to the national rules, the grounds for recall may be related to: (a) aspects of the work plan that would have been breached; (b) legal provisions on citizen participation that are considered unfulfilled or violated (c) non-compliance with their functions and obligations established in the Constitution and laws.