The CPCCS approves the contest regulations to elect the Attorney General

The Plenary of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) approved the Regulation for the selection and appointment process of the primary authority of the State Attorney General’s Office. The decision is contained in resolution CPCCS-PLE-SG-043-O-2026-0331, published in the Seventh Supplement of the Official Registry No. 403 on Thursday, November 5, 2026, starting on page 7 of the issue.

The text appears in the Transparency and Social Control Function section of the bulletin, which in this edition totals 37 pages and is distributed from Quito. With this publication, the Council formalizes the instrument with which it will conduct the appointment of the head of the State Attorney General’s Office, one of the appointments that the Constitution and the law reserve for this participation body.

The deciding body and the legal framework

The CPCCS is the competent entity to appoint the primary authority of the State Attorney General’s Office based on the shortlist submitted by the President of the Republic. Article 69 of the Organic Law of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control specifies that, for authorities coming from presidential shortlists, the development of oversight and citizen challenge processes “shall be carried out directly by the Council,” without passing through the citizen selection commissions formed for other appointments.

The same regulation tasks the CPCCS with organizing the public competition of opposition and merits with application, oversight, and the right to citizen challenge when applicable. The now-published regulation orders that procedure for the case of the State Attorney General and establishes the framework to which both the Plenary and those aspiring to the position must adhere.

What is published and how to consult it

• Regulation: Regulation for the selection and appointment process of the primary authority of the State Attorney General’s Office.
• Approval act: resolution of the CPCCS Plenary with identifier CPCCS-PLE-SG-043-O-2026-0331.
• Bulletin: Official Registry Year II, No. 403, Seventh Supplement, 37 pages.
• Publication date: Thursday, November 5, 2026.
• Location: page 7, Transparency and Social Control Function section.
• Document structure: recitals, resolution part, and the articles of the regulation, with the electronic signatures of the Council authorities.

The regulation is reproduced in full in the same supplement, so the text that will govern the procedure remains available to applicants, overseers, and the general public without the need for additional procedures.

Why the position matters

The Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General del Estado) exercises the sponsorship of the State: it assumes the legal defense of public entities and private law legal entities that manage public resources, and authorizes the lawyers of those institutions to intervene in trials and administrative processes. The head of the entity also directs the delegations and the criteria with which the State appears before the courts.

This weight is evident in other norms of the same volume. The delegations approved for the Agency for Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control reserve for the Attorney General of the State or their delegate the prior authorization to concede to a lawsuit or reach a settlement, among other sensitive decisions within a litigation.

With the published regulation, the CPCCS has its own procedure for a designation that is not resolved in a single session: it requires nomination, verification of requirements, oversight, and citizen challenge. The solidity of that process determines whether the appointment of the State’s lead lawyer reaches its destination without challenges that would halt it in the courts or in the Assembly.

Source: Official Registry, Year II - No. 403 (Seventh Supplement), Thursday, November 5, 2026, Transparency and Social Control Function, p. 7 (official reference: CPCCS-PLE-SG-043-O-2026-0331).