QUITO, April 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Two years and three months after in office as the president of Ecuador, Lucio Gutierrez was sacked by parliament Wednesday, the third head of state to be ousted since 1997 amid political crisis in the Andean nation.

    Gutierrez assumed presidency on Jan. 15, 2003, after winning elections on Nov. 24, 2002.

    He had been scrambling with a medley of conflicts either with allies or opponents during his 825 days in power.

    Gutierrez began to be weighed down six months after taking office. He fired several ministers of the indigenous party Pachacutik, leaving a crack in the alliance of his government.

    His standoff with the parliament turned out even more costly. Out of the 100 seats, his Sociedad Patriotica 21de Enero party took only seven. Parliament blocking often foiled his plan for privatization of petroleum and electricity firms, constitutional reforms and improvement of the social security system.

    The most fatal came last December when he managed to dissolve the Supreme Court. The opposition accused Gutierrez of making an attempt to bloc the court from seeking to impeach him on corruption charges.

    The crisis turned worse early in April, when the new president of the Supreme Court cleared former president Abdala Bucaram of corruption charges and allowed him to return from eight years in exile in Panama.

    Bucaram's Ecuadorian Roldosista Party is widely viewed as a keyally of Gutierrez's ruling party. Bucaram helped Gutierrez throughthe crisis late last year. Gutierrez's alliance also includes the Institutional National Action Rennovation Party led by banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa.

    To deal with the surging protests, Gutierrez declared a state of emergency in the capital city last week. He also fired the Supreme Court for the second time in a bid to settle the politicalcrisis.

    The 48-year-old president was then alleged to order a crackdown on demonstrators amid ever-growing massive protests pressing for his resignation.

    Gutierrez was sacked Wednesday and the parliament replaced him with Vice President Alfredo Palacio as the new head of state. Enditem