According to the deadlines established for the early elections, by now we should already know the names, surnames and party affiliation of the presidential candidates, and without too many questions, their binomial partners. But until Friday they were just rumours. As befits national politics, each of these names was cited by extremely reliable sources, which were denied within minutes by other equally reliable sources. In short, the only thing that was certain was that a few hours after the closing of applications, some two or three self-proclaimed characters were crossing their fingers, waiting for the kind party or movement that welcomes them under their letterhead to comply with the legal provision. .

Seen from a distance, the situation is comical. However, experiencing it live and directly, every day, and considering that the future of the country is at stake, he presents his real picture of the tragedy. Indeed, there is no mercy in the fact that the process of selecting candidates for the most important positions in the state is defined by the opportunism of some individuals for whom their own evaluation is the only credential and the indifference of the majority who see all this as something alien. This is the result of many factors, among which the electoral and a party law that fails to fulfill its central function of regulating political competition. For its supposed openness, it has been turned into a book that encourages adaptation and encourages its own non-conformity. Added to that is the lightness in the decisions of those responsible for its application, as in the recent case of passing a regulation that openly violates the same law regarding parity.

Second, this situation results from the disappearance of political parties. The crisis of these can no longer be talked about, because simply and simply they are no more. For more than twenty years, since some ignorant person came up with the idea of ​​describing a political system in which there were never strong parties as a partiocracy, every form of moderately stable political organization has been denigrated. In the long run, they turned parties into something shameful and politics into a dirty word. Hence, with a few exceptions, the usual presentation of those who aspire to political positions now is to make sure that they are not politicians (one can imagine the kind of laughter they would cause if, applying for a place in the football team, they put the fact that they are not football players as their first quality) .

To these factors should be added the responsibility of each of the people who repeatedly give their vote to charlatans and apprentices, but that would require several complete articles. What can be imagined so far is a campaign without ideological content and much less programmatic. The competition will be largely based on specific themes (such as the fight against crime and allegations of corruption). There will be no shortage of problem-solving magic formulas and personal attacks between the candidates. The void that this means will once again be filled by the central stage of the dilemma between Correísmo and anti-Correísmo. This will define the result and we will feel that we have moved to stay on the same ground. (OR)