Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa appointed Cynthia Gellibert, the secretary general of public administration, as interim vice president on Saturday, replacing the elected vice president Veronica Abad.
The move comes after a year of tensions between Noboa and Abad, who have clashed over who should represent the country while Noboa campaigns for a four-year presidential term in the upcoming election. The country’s constitution stipulates that the vice president must assume the presidency when the president is campaigning.
Abad, who also serves as Ecuador’s ambassador to Israel, has long maintained that she had the right to assume the presidency during Noboa’s absence. However, she was suspended from her post by the labour ministry in November.
In a decree, Noboa explained that Abad was barred from holding public office due to legal issues and insubordination. The labor ministry had accused her of a serious disciplinary offence for failing to comply with a presidential order to travel to Turkey on specified dates.
Noboa faces leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez in the April election, which is shaping up to be a surprisingly tight contest, featuring the same two candidates who ran in the 2023 snap election.
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