A parliamentary committee in Ecuador recommended yesterday Wednesday that President Guillermo Lasso be removed from office and referred to trial, due to allegations of corruption in public enterprises.

The proposal, which the government described as an “assault on common sense”, is the first step in the potential process.

The commission, made up of seven parliamentarians, most of whom belong to the opposition, was formed to look into allegations that jobs and contracts for the execution of projects are shared by public enterprises in exchange for bribes to people close to the right-wing president Lasso, a former banker .

This proposal was “approved with six votes in favor and one vote against”, summed up the chair of the committee, opposition MP Viviana Velos. The committee “introduces hearings on the suspension and impeachment of the President of the Republic” Lasso, he clarified.

“When confidence in the president is lost, there is no other remedy but to change” the country’s political and state leadership, Mrs. Velos added.

The presidential information service did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters for comment.

However, the Minister of the Presidency, Henri Coucalon, emphasized to an Ecuadorian television station that the parliamentarians must document their proposal, calling the project “absurd” and seeing it as an “attack against logic”.

To begin such a process, the proposal must be approved by a majority of the 137 members of Ecuador’s parliament in a plenary session and then a formal request by parliamentarians must be submitted to the president of the body. A green light is still required from the Constitutional Court.

The commission had weighed whether and whether to charge Mr Lasso with “treason”, but ended up charging him with corruption and crimes against state security.

Mr Lasso has repeatedly clashed bitterly with parliament, where his faction lacks a majority. Members of the body had tried to suspend him and refer him to trial in 2022 as well, during the mass mobilizations of various indigenous organizations.

The powerful indigenous collective CONAIE last week called on the head of state to resign, accusing him of reneging on commitments he made and announcing it was ending bilateral negotiations.

Last month, the head of state oil company Petroecuador tendered his resignation after his home was among the locations searched by magistrates in a corruption probe.

Prosecutors also searched the offices of the presidency.

The government has assured that it will fully cooperate with the investigation.