The empty chair is a mechanism of political participation that aims to strengthen citizens’ participation in discussion and decision-making in public affairs. It was introduced in the Constitution of the Republic, and later regulated in Cootad, the Law on Citizen Participation and municipal ordinances. Its use enables the participants to have the right to vote and to vote on certain issues that are on the agenda of the municipal council sessions. But how much has an empty chair been used in Guayaquil in recent years?

The empty chair was not used during the administration of Cynthia Viteri due to “non-compliance with the legal provisions” governing it

According to a report in this newspaper, 686 applications were made for the vacant seat in Mayor Cynthia Viteri’s office from 2019 to 2020, but none could be effective. Likewise, according to a university investigation that analyzes reports on the responsibility of the municipality of Guayaquil, since 2016 the empty chair has not been used. Finally, a report by the Technical Secretariat for Citizen Participation and Social Control, which carried out a similar analysis, but from the period 2014-2018, showed that Guayaquil is part of the 62% -on average- of municipalities in Ecuador where the chairman has been practically empty.

Out of 221 municipalities, only 84 on average fill the empty seats at their meetings

So what happens to an empty chair in Guayaquil that no one uses? There are two critical nodes: one regulatory and the other administrative. At the regulatory level, the problem is that the Ordinance on Citizen Participation establishes that citizens can only participate in issues that are expressly placed on the agenda of the Municipal Council session. What’s the problem with this? That people do not know well in advance what will be discussed at the Council session. Apparently, the agenda should be published at least 48 hours in advance on the municipal website; but this was not fulfilled in the previous offices of the mayor. The new mayor of Aquiles Alvarez obeyed, but it is not enough.

Why is it not enough? Here comes the administrative problem. Let’s say, you are an ordinary citizen who has no contacts in the Municipality and does not receive unofficial information, so the only way to get information on Tuesdays is on the website of the municipality, because the agenda is not published on social networks (first indicate to improve: diffusion). Let’s assume that the public matter that will be discussed at the session of the Municipal Council is precisely the one for which the citizen is interested in being part of the discussion and decision-making; So, a new regulatory and administrative challenge is coming: to accredit representativeness, experience and knowledge of the subject in the Council Secretariat and to process, send and notify in less than 48 hours.

These regulatory and administrative problems that make it difficult to use the empty chair have two solutions. First, a comprehensive reform of the Regulation on Citizen Participation to facilitate the process. Second, show political will and actively invite citizens to participate in Council meetings using an empty chair. Only then will this chair betray its name in favor of the people. (OR)