Assembly members take the stage again to help the candidates in the sectional elections

They are not all, but due to the electoral campaign, the majority of the assembly members left their seats and their offices in Quito to get back on stage or tour neighborhoods and markets in search of votes for the candidates for prefects, mayors, councilors and parish councils. .

The sectional elections are scheduled for February 5, 2023, and in this process the seven members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) will also be elected, and there will also be a popular consultation with eight questions raised by the national government .

Given the political-electoral effervescence, the assembly members prioritize their presence in the province and cantons they represent to meet the requirements of their organizations to accompany local candidates to motivate the vote, and others even requested a license and principalized their substitutes.

In the second week of the electoral campaign, at least 16 assembly members from all the benches excused themselves from attending the two plenary sessions and the legislative commissions, but sent their substitutes.

As soon as the plenary sessions on Thursdays are over, they go to their provinces and cantons, on Fridays there are no legislators in the Legislative Palace. On weekends they increase their proselytizing tours, they activate their social networks where they publish their activity together with the candidates.

Legislator Mario Ruiz, representative of Pachakutik in Imbabura, appointed his deputy, Inti Noquez, to dedicate himself to the campaign. At the San Pablo Lake water park in Otavalo, Ruiz improvised a pambamesa; with the wiphala and corn in hand invites all 18 to vote in the elections on February 5, 2023. “We live the campaign with joy and in community…”, he wrote on his Twitter account.

The alternate legislator Inti Noquez acknowledges that Ruiz is in the campaign, although he also points out that his health is a bit delicate, but that the line of the Pachakutik bench is to support the movement’s candidates at the national level. It even highlights the participation and support for the candidacy of Ángel Guaján, the youngest candidate, at 20 years of age, for the Mayor of Urcuquí.

The organic law of the Legislative Function does not prohibit legislators from campaigning and allows assembly members to excuse themselves from attending plenary sessions and committees, but provided they lead their substitute.

From the Democratic Left, Dalton Bacigalupo, a legislator from Cotopaxi, activated the campaign on social networks, broadcasting messages to all candidates on list 12 regardless of the province he represents. In some messages they appear together with the aspiring mayors and in others he goes to interviews to denounce the dirty campaign against the aspirants. In the last week, Bacigalupo led Sherlin Pacheco.

But in Carchi, the legislator Ramiro Narváez, walks the streets in the campaign in favor of the candidate for mayor of Tulcán, Guillermo Herrera.

The director of the ID in Pichincha, Alejandro Jaramillo, points out that the orange assembly members take the time on weekends to tour the neighborhoods together with the applicants. For example, in Pichincha, he points out that he has traveled the entire province to recover the Mayor’s Office of Quito and the Prefecture of Pichincha. “As militants and part of the political organization we are helping in the campaign because the citizens have also seen the work done by the bloc in the National Assembly,” he says.

In Los Ríos, two assemblymen representing that province, Johnny Terán Barragán (PSC) and Eduardo Mendoza Hurtado (independent), are also dedicated to targeting the campaign of their parents: Johnny Terán Salcedo and Eduardo Mendoza Palma, respectively; both seek the same position, the Prefecture of Los Ríos.

The legislators favored the substitutes Alisson Haón, in the case of the PSC, and Katherine Troya, replacing Mendoza. The two turned to the campaign in the province of Fluminense in support of their parents, and on social networks they show their active participation in the contest.

From the ruling party, Guido Chiriboga, assemblyman and national president of the Creando Oportunidades (CREO) movement, is focused on the campaign; and in his replacement, Diana Arreaga acts in plenary and commissions. Chiriboga travels throughout the country asking for the vote in favor of the candidates for prefects, mayors and councillors.

Correísmo legislators are also in the campaign, even with their legislative work teams they join the day. In the last week, the substitutes for assembly members José Luis Vallejo, Sofía Espín, Luisa González and José Chávez, among others, also performed.

Ana Rueda, who replaced José Luis Vallejo, says that the legislator is very close to the campaign in the province of Carchi with the candidate Wilson Ortega, candidate for the Prefecture on list 5. He tours the province and will remain the whole month of January in that proselytizing activity and she will be a legislator in the National Assembly.

This political sector was also activated on social networks and in the media to carry out a campaign for the No in the popular consultation raised by the government of Guillermo Lasso. (YO)