“Guillermo Lasso had the goal of the disappearance of the PSC, but he did not achieve it,” says Alfredo Serrano, president of the party that obtains 28 mayoralties, although Guayaquil lost

The preliminary results of the National Electoral Council (CNE) indicate that the Social Christian Party (PSC) obtained 28 mayors’ offices in nine provinces of the country, and two prefecturesthat of Esmeraldas and that of Los Ríos, considering those achieved with alliances.

However, that listing does not include the Guayaquil Mayor’s Officeits main stronghold, nor the Prefecture of Guayasthe most populous province in Ecuador, both positions obtained by Aquiles Álvarez and Marcela Aguiñaga, of the Citizen Revolution movement, respectively.

On the Instagram profile of the Social Christian leader Jaime Nebot there is a video that corroborates these results. But in the end, under the title of “Allies”, he adds to the elected prefect of El Oro, Clemente Bravo, and the mayors of the canton of La Libertad (in Santa Elena), Francisco Tamariz, and of Durán (in Guayas) Luis Chonillowho did not reach their dignities as PSC candidates.

The message indicates that, “by agreeing on political, economic and social theses”, these “have agreed to join and share the actions of the 6 and allies, for the progress and defense of the citizens they represent.”

The same with the winning candidates of the Social Conservative movement of Carchi, who are the elected prefect of that province, Julio Robles, and the future mayors of Montúfar, Mira and Bolívar.

Alfredo Serrano, national president of the PSC, recognizes a setback by losing Guayaquil, after 31 years of Social Christian administration, with successions of León Febres-Cordero (1992-2000), Jaime Nebot (2000-2019) and Cynthia Viteri (2019-2023). The latter was seeking re-election, but she came second.

“Undoubtedly, no one can ignore that having lost Guayaquil has a high political and emotional impact for us. The emotional lasts the first few days, but the political does take longer. Obviously, This warrants a more in-depth analysis.beyond the fact that we have obtained a significant number of mayors’ offices, prefectures. up for votebecause that is how it is measured, we are the second political force in the country, after in 2021 we were the fourth political force for supporting Guillermo Lasso (president of the Republic). While In the 2019 sectional elections we were the first, both in number of mayors and dignities (as well as in) votes”, assures Serrano.

The dispersion of the PSC in Guayaquil and Guayas is one of the variables that influenced the loss of electoral support, indicates Serrano, in that canton and province. “We saw Social Christians who launched themselves and ended up doing a great favor to the Citizen Revolution so that they stay with the Mayor and Prefecture. When Nebot finished the Mayor’s office, the bar was set very high, and a period of 19 years could not be compared with one of three and a half years for Cynthia Viteri”.

What also took its toll —he adds— was the decision to support Lasso to take him to the Presidency of the Republic. “This man betrayed all campaign commitments; which was finished off with a decision that we had to make for the benefit of the country to avoid an economic, political and social crisis, which was to avoid the dismissal of Lasso in June 2022″.

As a consequence, says Serrano, many party cadres resigned from their candidacies in six provinces. “We were left without a directive in some provinces of the Sierra because we supported Lasso.”

The leader indicates that, except for Guayaquil and Guayas, there is a gain —he reiterates— in the general results at the national level. “A series of changes must be implemented to correct errors, which we accept have been committed, replacements of directives, new alliances and faces that we have to apply in these two years to face the 2025 presidential elections.”.

This result was obtained despite the fact that the current Lasso regime had as its goal the disappearance of the PSC, says Serrano. “(Former President Rafael) Correa also tried and gave up, but who we took to the Presidency of the Republic (referring to Lasso) had the goal of making the PSC disappear, and he did not achieve it.”.

Serrano indicates that the objective is to recover the Guayaquil Mayor’s Office and the Guayas Prefecture in the next elections of 2027. “You have to prepare to recover the lost space with certainty. Despite the fact that we are the party that has produced the most political cadres, including female leaders, we must have even more throughout the country”.

One of the pillars and commitments of the PSC with the 28 mayoralties and the two prefectures is to get the approval of the bill to increase the income of the sectional governments in the National Assembly. “And the presence and political struggle so that the resources are delivered on time to the municipalities; a fight of a lifetime, what must change”.

To this is added the permanent advice to the municipalities that want to implement the projects that Nebot executed in Guayaquil.

The two prefectures they get are Esmeraldas and Los Ríos, with Roberta Zambrano and Johnny Terán. Both were re-elected, with 51.12% and 37.7% of the valid votes, in that order.

And among the 28 mayors in which they directly triumphed, there is only San Cristóbal as the only provincial capital they obtained, with Rolando Caiza.

In the province of Manabí, the key was the Alianza por la Unidad Manabita, which encompasses the provincial Caminantes movement, led by Agustín Casanova (who sought the Prefecture of that province, coming in second place), and SUMA.

Jorge Acaiturri, one of the elected councilors of the PSC in Guayaquil, affirms that In total, 33 mayors and 4 prefectures were obtained if those obtained by support under coincidence of ideological approaches are included, without all of them having intervened under the auspices of this party.

“At the local level we could not maintain the bastion that was the city of Guayaquil; however, we have gotten a significant 30% vote (of valid votes). At home, we have to evaluate the mistakes made and correct them to be prepared for the next elections”. (YO)