National Congress (Ecuador)
The National Congress (Spanish: Congreso Nacional) was the unicameral national parliament and thus the important legislative body in Ecuador. Its successor is the National Assembly, which convened for the first time on 31 July 2009.
Under the 1998 Constitution, the Congress consisted of 100 deputies (deputados) and was based in the capital, Quito. The deputies were elected as representatives of the provinces for a four-year period. Each of the 22 provinces provided at least two deputies, and provinces with large populations received additional seats, most recently one for every 200,000 inhabitants. The province of Guayas provided the most deputies, with 18. The largest factions in the National Congress at the beginning of the legislature after the 2006 Ecuadorian elections were: Partido Renovador Institucional Acción Nacional (PRIAN, 28), Partido Sociedad Patriótica (PSP, 24), Partido Social Cristiano (PSC, 13), Izquierda Democrática (ID, 7), Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano (PRE, 6), Pachakutik (6), Red Ética y Democracia (RED, 6), and Unión Demócrata Cristiana (UDC, 4). The president of the National Congress was Jorge Cevallos (PRIAN), and the first vice president was Edison Chávez (PSP). PRIAN, PSP, PSC and UDC formed a majority coalition, which, however, was temporarily abandoned by the PSP, since the PSP, unlike its coalition partners, supported the convening of a constituent assembly by President Correa and did not actively seek to prevent it.
It is not uncommon in Ecuador's parliamentary system for deputies to change parties or become independents during the legislative term. Following the adoption of a new code of ethics, in the legislative period from 2007 onwards, MPs who left their parliamentary group or were expelled from their party could have their mandate revoked and be assigned to a replacement MP from the party. This happened in the 2007 legislature already in the first week of session, when two deputies of the Partido Sociedad Patriótica of ex-president Lucio Gutiérrez were expelled, one of them Ximena Bohórquez, Gutiérrez's wife (living with him in property separation).
Ecuador's 2007-08 Constituent Assembly passed a decree on its first day of session on 30 November 2007 that Congress would enter an indefinite recess, as a result of which the National Congress is currently de facto not in session. Following the adoption of the new Constitution in a referendum in September 2008, the Legislative Commission of the Constituent Assembly initially continued to act as the legislature before the newly elected Parliament convened for the first time on 31 July 2009 as the Asamblea Nacional (National Assembly).
