We begin the seventh month of the year and welcome it with an election campaign that seeks to elect a new president and government. We have eight couples who claim to be the best thing to happen to the country if they make it to the Presidency. In recent weeks, we have heard some proposals and each candidate puts their best face on the video. I was disturbed by the initial excitement of some, who excitedly drew up a list like the Toby club, where women were only secondary guests, but then had to comply with the law and put them on the ballot between stiff smiles and network photos only one party from the first moment bet on a woman as the main candidate.

Are we like that?

However, the image of the messiah, the man who has all the means to save us, is still valid. Ecuador, like Latin America, is a nation in love with the caudillo and a slave to populism. We believe all the campaign offers and sigh at the feverish promises launched from the platform, but we forget that it is an almost recurring fact that once a politician achieves what he wanted, he forgets what he promised. So how long will we continue to repeat the behaviors that got us to where we are and from which we want to escape? It is foolish to keep doing the same thing and expect different results. Therefore, it is funny to see how many former members of parliament, dismissed due to corruption and inefficiency, bravely return to vote with proposals for “honest work and service to the people”. Could it be that people are voting for the same characters again?

Handpicked candidates and governments without transparency

In this way, I believe that citizens should make a difference. We have a month or two to think about the people who feel like they’re presidential, but let’s look beyond their looks. Let’s read his body language, investigate his judicial and political past, and I think it’s important to analyze his personal behavior as well. Whoever is disloyal, violent or immoral in private will be so in public, and we are tired of these signs. The change that provides the population with economic, social and educational opportunities is fundamental.

The five parties that ruled since 1979 no longer exist, will the same happen to CREO?

(…) I hope that the candidates for the presidency of the nation have a work plan, and not just a good reel for Instagram or TikTok.

So, quite a few politicians who use their power by setting up friends, couples or family members for jobs. How long is it merit to have some kind of relationship with a certain authority? The state needs security attention, but also a view towards education, especially in marginal sectors. As long as we have citizens who are not literate, and our authorities have no social awareness, we will continue to repeat patterns of violence and abuse, where development opportunities are utopian phrases in a staged discourse.

In the same order, I hope that the candidates for the presidency of the nation have a plan of action, and not just a good reel for Instagram or TikTok. It’s time to act and not just talk, I think we’ve had enough of violence, corruption and fraud. Consequently, I prefer Martin Luther King’s expression: “It’s always the right time to do what’s right.” (OR)