Ecuadorian govt satisfied with sacking of supreme court
The Ecuadorian government on Monday welcomed as "positive, democratic and independent" a decision made by Congress to dissolve the country's controversial Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ).

Meanwhile, President Lucio Gutierrez turned down a resignation demand arisen from a political crisis triggered by the sacking of the supreme court.

"From now on, we will be aware that the next SCJ won't be a politicized or a partisan one, we want this to be the best SCJ of the history of the country", government spokesman Ivan Ola said.

The spokesman said in an interview with a local radio station that president Gutierrez had said several times in the past that the supreme court appointed on Dec. 8 was "temporal."

On Friday, Gutierrez declared a state of emergency and dissolved the Supreme Court in a bid to placate protesters after his congressional allies in December fired 27 of the court's 31 judges and named replacements sympathetic to his government.

Ecuador's Congress late Sunday approved the president's decision to disband the Supreme Court at a special session held in Quito, following mass street protests against the recent judicial reforms.

Gutierrez, 48, was elected in late 2002 with support from the country's poor majority. But the former army colonel has alienated many supporters by negotiating with the International Monetary Fund and pursuing economic austerity policies.

A survey released Monday by the media showed that the president recorded a new drop in his damaged popularity amid the four-month-long political crisis.

According to the survey, conducted from April 15 to 17, the president's popularity dropped from 9-11 percent a week earlier to4.1 percent, and the rejection rate rose as high as 95.9 percent.

The state of emergency announced by Gutierrez and the discharge of the Supreme Court are two top negative factors which dragged the president's popularity down. As many as 94.4 percent of those polled opposed the declaration of the state of emergency in Quito.

According to the survey, 82.06 percent of the respondents said they consider the president as a dictator. As many as 95.7 percent of the polled said they were "somewhat" disappointed with the president.

Eighty three percent of the polled said things are not going well in the country. To the question: "Do you believe in what Lucio Gutierrez says?", only 3.97 percent said yes and an overwhelming 96.03 percent said no.

Gutierrez said on Monday that he cannot resign because of the "great responsibility" he assumed in front of the 13 millions of Ecuadorians and more than 3 million citizens that voted for him.

In statements released Monday by the media, Gutierrez downplayed the daily street protests in Quito, saying the people participating in the demonstrations represented only one percent of the capital's total inhabitants.

"We have more than 2 million inhabitants and I think that the marches have not exceeded 10,000 or 20,000 people," he said. "We could say that one percent of the people are actively participating."

Moreover, he said, the protests were only in Quito and the rest of county was "absolutely quiet."