With irony and great success, political scientist Adam Przeworski says that democracy is a regime in which ruling parties can lose elections without it being a disaster. Although it refers to national elections, in which the president and/or legislators are changed without leading to the collapse of democracy, the term better applies to local elections, in which the positions do not directly affect the behavior of the state. However, creative as we are in this navel of the world, we stretch the results of parish, cantonal or provincial wills endlessly and want to give them a meaning they don’t have. The only relatively similar precedent was that of Spain in 1931 (which was not exactly a democracy) where, after some municipal elections, the monarchy was replaced by the Republic, which was one of the most retarded justifications for imposing the most disastrous phase of its history.

Sectional elections in Ecuador in 2023

The most skilled perform the same interpretation with query results. It is true, according to the figures known so far, that the Government lost tremendously and that this confirms what the polls showed about the citizens’ opinion. It was a competition that he should never have entered, as many have repeated and what has been repeated several times in this same column. If any moderately informed individual knows that consultation in our environment does not judge the message but the messenger, it was foolish to refer to it when the acceptance of the latter is on the ground. A negative result was inevitable. But to go from there to thinking that the consequence should be the dissolution of the Government is something that does not make sense and shows, as has been said more than once, that there is a logic of conspiracy that is basically motivated by the judicial situation of those who pull these strings..

(…) consultations in our medium do not serve to evaluate the message but the messenger…

On the other hand, there are those who cry out for the famous death on the cross. After the June attempt by the Assembly, that power remained exclusively in the hands of the President of the Republic. He could dissolve the Assembly and rule indefinitely with decrees-laws on economic urgency. Undoubtedly, it is something more than what it can do at the moment, but not much more (it could not, for example, implement constitutional reforms or fundamental legal changes). In any case, assuming that he chose that path, it is doubtful that under these conditions there could be any significant change in the management of a government that has shown little or no understanding of the needs of citizens and what it means to engage in politics.

Choices: Lessons, Bumps and Bubbles

The answer (for a long time, as it is insisted, necessary) was the renovation of the cabinet. We will have to wait until we see the results. However, it will be of little use if the need for a radical change of course is not internalized at the top, in the head of the executive power. Unfortunately, the experience of these first twenty-one months says otherwise. If he insists on continuing on this path, he will agree with those who want to turn local elections and consultations into an assault ladder on the fortress. (OR)