Electoral judge denies recall request against Vice President María José Pinto

An Ecuadorian judge has denied a legal effort to initiate a recall process against Vice President María José Pinto. Ivonne Coloma, president of the Electoral Contentious Tribunal (TCE), rejected a subjective electoral contentious resource filed on July 30, 2026.

The resource questioned two resolutions from the National Electoral Council (CNE) that had prevented the distribution of forms needed to collect signatures for the recall. The judge's ruling, dated July 30, 2026, stated that the recall request failed to clearly and precisely specify the alleged unfulfilled commitments, functions, and obligations, nor their direct link to any action or omission by the vice president.

Furthermore, the ruling pointed to Article 97 of the Code of Democracy, which requires work plans to include a diagnosis of the current situation. The court found that the applicant had not met this requirement. Judge Coloma emphasized that the passage of approximately one year in office does not legally prevent claims of non-compliance with a work plan. However, she stressed that the applicant needed to identify specific, enforceable obligations within the elapsed period, the required actions, the expected outcomes, or how the vice president's conduct hindered the proposal's future execution.

The sentence concluded that the recall request did not meet the necessary legal requirements outlined in the Law on Citizen Participation and its regulations. Consequently, Coloma denied the appeal. The lawyer who filed the resource, Jorge Cáceres, retains the option to appeal this decision to the full five-member TCE, which would then make a final ruling.