After the National Electoral Council (CNE) decided to annul the voting of members of the assembly carried out by Ecuadorians living abroad, due to the failure of their telematic voting project due to technical failures caused, according to the institution, by cyber attacks, there is a debate about whether this is legal or no, which has to be decided by the Court of Electoral Disputes (TCE).

Three appeals are currently pending in the TCE, asking the election judges to overturn the decision of the Special Committee on Foreign Affairs that requested the annulment of the vote for the dignities of MPs and Migrant MPs, and thereby declare the results based on the review last August 20.

Previously, seven appeals were filed demanding a re-vote due to difficulties with telematic voting, but all were filed because the prosecutors did not supplement or expand the information requested by the election judges.

The nullity of the elections for domestic and foreign representatives opens a debate on the constitutionality and legality of the decision

Proponents of actions against repetition are parties and movements whose results, mainly of MPs, would be affected by the differences with which they won one or more seats.

At the same time, thousands of Ecuadorians who were prevented from sending their valid vote (a little more than 50,000 of the 123,000 registered could), in accordance with legal provisions, demand and deserve answers for the omissions.

The TCE must decide whether the negligence of what happened with telematic voting is sufficient reason to partially repeat the election abroad, which would be done in a second round of voting for the president, something that various sectors say would favor the political shops of the two finalist candidates.

The country is waiting for a final answer based entirely on legality to know how the new legislature will be composed. (OR)