Quito reforms its open government regulations with Ordinance 128-2026

The Metropolitan Council of Quito issued Metropolitan Ordinance No. 128-2026, a comprehensive reform to Title III of Book I.3 of the Municipal Code for the Metropolitan District of Quito, dedicated to “Open Government in the Municipality of the Metropolitan District of Quito.” The regulation consists of twelve articles, one new chapter, and two transitory provisions, and was published in Special Edition No. 1738 of the Official Registry on Friday, November 13, 2026, in the section for Decentralized Autonomous Governments.

Two debates and Mayor’s sanction

The ordinance was discussed and approved in two debates: the first in ordinary Session No. 138 on June 10, 2025, and the second in extraordinary Session No. 229 on November 5, 2026. It was sanctioned on the same November 5, 2026, by Mayor Pabel Muñoz López, and the discussion certificate was signed by the acting general secretary of the Council, Pedro Cornejo Espinoza.

The text replaces the provisions inherited from Metropolitan Ordinance No. 184 of 2017, whose norms were incorporated into the Municipal Code during the codification process of the metropolitan regulations in force in 2019. Among the background factors that motivated the reform, the document cites Metropolitan Mayor’s Resolution No. A 017 of December 12, 2014, which delegates the preparation and implementation of open government policies to the General Secretariat of Planning, and the municipality’s participation in the Open Government Partnership.

A redesigned Advisory Council

The new Article 472 establishes the composition of the Open Government Advisory Council:

• Presided over by the secretary in charge of Planning or their delegate.
• Three representatives of civil society.
• Three representatives of academia.
• Three representatives of the productive sector and the popular and solidarity economy.

Councilors will not be considered municipal employees; they are appointed every two years, may be re-elected only once, and must announce their resignation at least thirty days in advance. Applicants must prove knowledge of open government, and the process will include a challenge phase; monitoring is the responsibility of the Council’s Commission for Citizen Participation and Open Government.

Likewise, the Planning Secretariat must convene sessions at least 72 hours in advance, present a quarterly execution and evaluation report, and include them in the Council’s archive available to citizens. Council members, for their part, shall justify their absences 48 hours in advance.

Multi-year plans and “Open Council of Quito”

Article 477.1, incorporated as a new provision, regulates the co-creation of multi-year open government action plans under a methodology approved by the Advisory Council and international standards; the process must be public, inform participants how the commitments were selected, and notify the Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría del Pueblo) of the content of the plans, in accordance with Article 20 of the Regulations of the Organic Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information. Each commitment will require a feasibility report from the highest authority of the responsible agency.

The reform adds Chapter VII, “Open Council of Quito” (articles 491.1 to 491.7), which mandates the publication of calls for participation, agendas, minutes, votes, and attendance records in open and reusable formats on the Institutional Open Government Portal; the live broadcasting of sessions and their commissions with a video repository; the dissemination of the trajectory, asset declarations, and work plans of each council member; and the publication of the details of oversight requests. The ordinance approval procedure will also be made transparent to facilitate the exercise of the Empty Seat (Silla Vacía).

Article 12 adds Article 50.1 to the Municipal Code to elect, by absolute majority and with gender parity, an alternate deputy mayor when the mayor and deputy mayor are simultaneously absent due to unpaid leave for the electoral campaign.

Implementation Deadlines

The transitional provisions establish that the General Secretariat of Planning shall coordinate, within 30 days of enactment, the protocols to execute the open government mechanisms. Within 60 days, the General Secretariat of the Metropolitan Council shall update the information on the Institutional Open Government Portal and call upon academia and social organizations to develop the methodology for evaluating the quality of legislative information. The ordinance is effective from its enactment, without prejudice to its publication in the Official Registry (Registro Oficial).

The reform is important to the inhabitants of the Metropolitan District because it sets concrete obligations for the publication of municipal and legislative information, with verifiable deadlines, and turns the Council into an active subject of transparency before the citizenry.

Source: Official Registry, Special Edition No. 1738, Friday, November 13, 2026, Decentralized Autonomous Governments section, p. 2 (official reference: Metropolitan Ordinance No. 128-2026).