What do Ecuadorians vote this coming Sunday?

Ecuador An electoral week begins this Monday that will culminate on Sunday with a new appointment at the polls, where Ecuadorians are summoned to decide on four issues: a new president, a new National Assembly (Parliament) and two plebiscites on Petroleum and mining.

After electoral day on February 5, when the local elections were held, this new voting day arose in May, when the current president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, declared the “cross death”

Through this constitutional mechanism, Lasso dissolved the National Assembly (Parliament), with an opposition majority, at a time when the Legislature was seeking his dismissal, and forced this extraordinary call for general elections, whose winners will complete the 2021-2025 period.

lasso’s successor

Lasso’s successor will come out of the elections this Sunday, who has chosen not to stand for re-election.

Up to now, seven candidates have opted for the presidential chair, and the response of the National Electoral Council to the movement’s decision is awaited. “build”, to appoint journalist Christian Zurita to replace Fernando Villavicencio, assassinated last Wednesday at the exit of a rally, an act that has stained these elections with blood.

Among the applicants there is only one woman: Luisa González, the candidate of the Citizen Revolution, the political movement led by former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

The leftist and environmentalist Yaku Pérez and the businessman Xavier Hervas repeat their candidacy.

Also running for head of state are former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner, businessman and security specialist Jan Topic, businessman and former assemblyman Daniel Noboa, and lawyer Bolívar Armijos.

In the event that neither achieves more than 40% of the votes and a difference of at least ten points, there will be a second round on October 15 between the two most voted candidates.

a new parliament

Ecuadorians will also renew the National Assembly, currently dissolved, with another 137 new assembly members where, in principle, there will be no representatives of the ruling party, since the CREO movement decided not to participate in this electoral process.

Nor did it present lists for Pachakutik national assembly members, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), the largest social organization in the country, in the midst of an internal struggle for control and direction of the party.

The viability of the short term that the next president will have will depend on the result of the Assembly, especially if a situation similar to that of Lasso is reached, who lacked control over Parliament, which prevented him from carrying out key initiatives of his administration, such as the Investment Law.

Yasuní oil

August 20 will also be the day that the Yasunidos environmental group, the promoter of the national consultation to stop the extraction of oil from Block 43-ITT, one of Ecuador’s main deposits, which is located in Ecuador, has been waiting for ten years. Yasuni National Park.

The protection of this valuable natural enclave of the Ecuadorian Amazon, considered one of the world epicenters of biodiversity, is the objective of its promoters of the consultation, which managed to hold it after gathering 757,000 signatures and waging a legal battle with the electoral bodies. .

With an extension of one million hectares, in the Yasuní there are more than 2,000 species of trees and shrubs, 204 mammals, 610 birds, 121 reptiles, 150 amphibians and more than 250 fish, in addition to being the home of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation whose intangible zone borders the block.

Some 55,000 barrels of oil come out of the 43-ITT every day, representing 11% of Ecuador’s production, which amounts to some 480,000 barrels per day, which for Petroecuador and the State would mean a loss of US$ 1.2 billion, a figure that environmentalists believe it is much lower.

I veto mining in Quito

Additionally, the more than two million voters of Quito will decide whether to prohibit any form of mining in the Chocó Andino, a biosphere reserve that occupies 287,000 hectares of the province of Pichincha, part of which is within the metropolitan area of ​​the Ecuadorian capital.

This consultation, promoted by the environmental group Quito Sin Minería, proposes to veto mining activities in the 124,000 hectares covered by the Chocó Andino Commonwealth, made up of the rural towns of Calacalí, Gualea, Nanegal, Nanegalito, Nono and Pacto, belonging to the capital .

There are currently twelve concessions in the area in the exploration phase and another eight are in the process of being granted, which together would cover some 27,000 hectares located in an area where the promoters of the plebiscite want to preserve the landscape of Andean forests, promote tourism, sustainable activities and archaeological heritage.

Source: EFE