Correa's calls for a new constitution have popular support [AFP]

At loggerheads with the MPs, Rafael Correa, the Ecuadorean president, condemned the court's order as a "shameless deal".
 
"They [court judges] struck a shameless deal with the 57 dismissed lawmakers," Correa said in a statement.
 
The MPs reinstated on Monday had been among 57 forced out last month by an electoral court, which said they violated election law by trying to block the referendum.

Angry Correa

Correa, a US-educated economist, wants to use his mandate to reduce the influence of a congress perceived as corrupt.

"We will return to congress," said Gloria Gallardo, one of the reinstated legislators, although it was not clear when the ruling would take effect. "We ask for calm and consensus."

"The constitutional tribunal has teamed up in the most shameful way with the 57 dismissed lawmakers," Correa said in the city of Machala, near the border with Peru.

He said that if the MPs try force their way back into congress on Tuesday they will be arrested.

The electoral court's dismissal of 57 congressmen plunged all three branches of government into legal chaos over Correa's insistence that the special assembly would be able to fire legislators and even himself.

Correa, Ecuador's eighth president in a decade, took office on January 15, has called for a new charter that limits the power of the traditional political parties, which he blames for the nation's corruption and political instability.

Recommend this article...

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: