Elections are only one part of the democratic system, but they are very important because they decide who is who. Then you can philosophize a lot (and even regret), but many cards will be played, in this case for 18 months and with a huge impact on the next 48, because the new president will undoubtedly be re-elected between the eyebrows.

Read the latest news about the elections in Ecuador

Since tomorrow is a crucial step in democracy, I return to what I said in August in this same column:

1. Churchill was right (paraphrasing): “Democracy is the least bad of all systems,” because it is really very strange: self-elected people without any special merit present themselves as elected to important positions (the Presidency or the Assembly), on a mandatory basis, because in practice there is no possibility of refusal. As if to manage your company you necessarily had to choose between 4 or 5 of them that show up that day. Important positions? Indeed, they have enormous powers, such as deciding how much tax we pay (mandatory) and what it is spent on; and, even worse, they make decisions about our lives: education, freedom of trade, what is legal or illegal, labor relations, the use of force, and more. Fortunately, since they can abuse these powers (and do so without fear), democracy has invented a balance of three forces so that they check each other. That’s something.

2. But it’s also strange how we voters behave: even though we don’t have much information to choose from, we don’t make much effort to search for and evaluate it… We say: “I’m not interested in politics” or “I still have to fight in everyday life” , as if what politicians do does not affect us.

We say: “I’m not interested in politics” (…), as if what politicians do doesn’t concern us.

And that is what we will have in our hands tomorrow: to choose responsibly because it strongly affects our personal and common lives… Obviously, we would like political decisions to have less influence, but until that moment comes we must seriously ask ourselves: who has greater personal and team capacity to manage Who has the smartest ideas, not only thinking about how it directly affects me today, but also how it creates a better present and future environment for us? And something fundamental: who has better life values, which implies not only thinking about the operational ability to achieve results, but also who can act with greater good faith, without prejudices towards the love of power (the temptation of eternity is extremely dangerous), they favor their group friends, distribute jobs and contracts, manipulate the judiciary, believe that the insecurity created by mafia groups is resolved by leaving them a free way to operate? You must first be (good) people before you can be (good) rulers.

There are dictatorial regimes where one group decides everything, and with violence, on behalf of others. There are statist systems in which the same is achieved, but only in an apparently less violent way. And there are also democratic systems with the possibility of choice and control (albeit with limitations); but for it to work minimally, our sense of responsibility is key… This is how it should be tomorrow… (O)