In the election of the members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS), up to seven candidates are chosen from three ballots

The vote to choose the members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) is at the national level, just like the referendum, so the 13,450,047 Ecuadorians summoned must choose their option next February 5.

The art. 32 of the Citizen Participation Council Law establishes that the National Electoral Council (CNE) must prepare ballots with three lists: one for women, one for men and one for indigenous peoples and nationalities, Afro-Ecuadorians or Montuvios and Ecuadorians abroad with alternating gender; and that the order of placement will be established by lottery.

The norm determines that voters must vote for up to seven applicants: three from the men’s ballot, three from the women’s and one from the towns and nationalities.

After the election, three men and three women will be appointed as directors. If within the six appointed there is no member of the peoples and nationalities, the seventh counselor will be appointed whoever has obtained the highest vote on that ballot, and the alternate will be the candidate with the most votes representing Ecuadorians abroad.

Yes the vote is assigned to four or more of the male or female ballot, the vote is nullified. The same in that of peoples and nationalities, in which the limit is a single name.

Medardo Oleas, former president of the former Supreme Electoral Tribunal (as the CNE was previously known), indicates that there are a generalized confusion among citizens in the face of the large number of candidates and movements and political parties and ballot papers.

“The members of the polling stations (JRV) are going to take a long time to count, this means that errors can occur. Fatigue is the worst enemy in the sum of the votes”.

The CNE estimates that the members of the JRVs will remain at the respective polling stations for up to 16 hours, including the counting time that begins as soon as the voting day ends at 5:00 p.m. on February 5.

JRV members have been summoned to the premises at 06:30 to set up the tables and in the best of cases they would finish their work at 23:00. The compensation will be $40.

91% of the 279,244 designated as members of the boards receiving the vote are university students.

A total of 350 voters are assigned to each of the 40,714 vote-receiving boards that will be formed in the country and abroad with five members.

The members of the boards receiving the vote will be in the electoral precincts for up to 16 hours this February 5, 2023

“It is possible that due to the volume of ballots, perhaps in the afternoon they will not all be able to enter because not all citizens are meticulous and place them properly,” he says.

Oleas considers that the counting time will also exceed 11:00 p.m. on February 5 in some cases due to the number of ballots and votes to be computed.

The three CPCCS ballots go into the brown ballot box after assigning the vote together with those of urban and rural councillors, members of the parish councils and those of the referendum.

Another fact that can generate confusion, says Oleas, is the recent resolution of the Constitutional Court in which the seven members of the CPCCS are dismissed, a sentence that was made public on January 23rd.

The decision is not to appoint the new president of the Council of the Judiciary (CJ), so that the position is occupied by Álvaro Román.

The latter raised a protection action with the aim of making it official in the post.

The new president of the Judiciary believes that he will not be able to “transform everything” if he does not have the support of all the members; Álvaro Román Márquez assumed his position

The seven dismissed directors are Hernán Ulloa, María Fernanda Rivadeneira, Ibeth Estupiñán, Francisco Bravo, Sofia Almeida, Juan Xavier Dávalos and David Rosero, of which five will stand for reelection on February 5. Only Ulloa and Almeida did not apply.

“Right now this resolution is coming out of the Constitutional Court where it dismisses all the members of the Citizen Participation Council, so many citizens will wonder if they have already been dismissed, who am I going to elect?. The lack of adequate information brings confusion to those who do not know the details of the voting method”, indicates Oleas.

The Constitutional Court had ordered the CPCCS in September 2022 to designate the member and president of the CJ from the shortlist sent by the National Court of Justice.

After the resignation of María del Carmen Maldonado, the position was held by the vocal Fausto Murillo, who was in charge of the presidency of the CJ for almost a year from February 2022.

With the resolution of the CC, Román assumed the presidency of the highest jurisdictional control body on January 25.

In addition, questions 5 and 6 of the referendum will imply, if the vote is yes, the elimination of one of the powers of the CPCCS, that of choosing and appointing 77 state control authorities, a process that would once again return to the National Assembly. Also, it would be the last time that the members of the body are chosen by election, since it is provided that they be appointed by the Legislature. (YO)