Beyond the election ups and downs along the way, some (scattered) thoughts.

1. Churchill was right (paraphrasing), “democracy is the least bad system”, because it is really very strange: a self-selected group of people (or selected by their fellows), without any special merit, stands elected to important positions (the Presidency or Assembly), and mandatory because in practice there is no possibility of refusal. As if to run a company you necessarily have to choose between 4 or 5 who show up on such a day (or find out who you’re marrying!). Important positions? Undoubtedly, since they have enormous powers, from deciding how much tax we pay (mandatory), what it is spent on and perhaps even worse, they decide our lives: education, freedom of trade, what is legal or illegal, what kind of work conditions are like, use of force and more. Fortunately, because they can (and do) abuse these powers, democracy has invented a balance between the three powers: that one controls the other. That’s something.

2. But it is even more strange how we voters behave: although we do not have much information to choose from, we do not put much effort into obtaining and evaluating it. Undoubtedly, we put a lot more interest in other less important decisions in life. We say “it’s just that I’m not interested in politics” or “I still have to struggle in my daily life”, as if what politicians do doesn’t affect us.

3. So, the results from Sunday attract my attention, because after so much movement, we ended up with some trends similar to 2021. Let’s recall, then it was: Arauz 32.7%, Lasso 19.7%, Yaku 19% and Hervas 15.7 %. Now: Luisa 33.6%, Noboa 23.4%, Zurita/Villavicencio 16.6% and Topić 14.7%.

Similarities?

The same total absences + gaps + zero, going from 31.6% to 32.6%, despite the fact that absenteeism is now higher (23.8% vs. 19%).

The first four have almost the same vote, although the four are different: 87.1% before, 88.3% now.

Correísmo almost the same (up 0.9%) with the same support base on the coast.

Others at a relatively similar level (23.4% compared to 19.7%), but above all that both are from the business sphere (they differ in age). The third and fourth add something similar: before 34.7%, now 31.3%.

Although there is a lot of talk about the new generation of politicians, the average age of the first 4 fell from 50 to 45 years, which is not insignificant, but it is not special either, although for the first two the difference is important: we fell from 50 to 40 years. .

Another important difference: now three of the top four came from the Coast, in 2021 most from the Sierra.

Democracy is, therefore, something strange that we must preserve and improve because it is the least bad thing we have, and the first thing is to limit the power of politicians and give more power to citizens and their closest organizations, although in reality it is constantly growing (they increase it themselves). But it never ceases to shock me to think that people “fall from the sky” can make so many decisions about our lives. (OR)