Ecuador reinstates 51 ousted lawmakers

Ecuador's highest court on Monday reinstated 51 lawmakers ousted last month for allegedly interfering with a referendum on the South American nation's need for a new constitution.

The Electoral Tribunal's dismissal of the congressmen last month had plunged all three branches of government into legal chaos and it didn't appear that this latest development would quicly restore stability.

The president of the Constitutional Court, Santiago Velasquez, told reporters the chamber granted the lawmakers' request to block the Electoral Tribunal's firing of more than half of the 100-member legislature.

The Constitutional Court is the country's highest court and its rulings cannot be appealed, but President Rafael Correa said Monday's decision was a "flagrant" violation of the country's legal procedures.

It is unclear when the ruling will take effect or how the lawmakers' return will affect Correa's push for a special assembly to rewrite the constitution — overwhelmingly approved Ecuadoreans in a referendum vote last week.

Correa warned that if the lawmakers try force their way back into Congress on Tuesday they will be arrested.

"The Constitutional Tribunal has teamed up in the most shameful way with the 57 dismissed lawmakers," Correa said in the city of Machala, near the border with Peru.

Members of the Popular Democratic Movement, a leftist party allied with Correa, forced their way into the constitutional court in protest, while police fired tear gas on pro-Correa protesters who also tried to enter the building.

Congress had approved the referendum plan in February with the condition that the assembly would not be able to dissolve the legislature, which Correa has called "a sewer of corruption."

But the electoral tribunal approved Correa's request that the assembly have unlimited powers, causing the congress to fire the president of the court and the electoral court to respond by dismissing the lawmakers.

Correa, Ecuador's eighth president in a decade, took office Jan. 15, has called for a new charter that limits the power of the traditional political parties, which he blames for the nation's corruption and political instability.