The ten keys to the Ecuadorian elections

Ecuador will hold its extraordinary presidential and legislative elections this Sunday, immersed in a deep and complex security crisis that had one of its most tragic episodes with the recent assassination of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

More than 13.4 million Ecuadorians are summoned to the polls to elect the new members of the Presidency, the Vice-Presidency and the National Assembly (Parliament), in a vote that will have the following keys and factors:

1. The assassination of Villavicencio

The electoral campaign was marked for history by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, which occurred last week when he was shot by suspected Colombian hitmen as he was leaving an electoral rally, after in previous weeks he had already denounced death threats at his against.

2. Political violence

The assassination of Villavicencio caused a wave of political violence to reach the presidential race that had already claimed the lives of other politicians and candidates, such as the mayor of Manta, Agustín Intriago, something that was also seen in the local elections held in February, where a mayoral candidate was also assassinated the night before the vote.

3. Security crisis

Insecurity has been practically the only topic of discussion since the beginning of the electoral campaign, even more so with the murder of Villavicencio, which raised the phenomenon of violence in which Ecuador is plunged to an unprecedented level, which the Government attributes to the organized crime and drug trafficking, which have become strong in the coastal zone of the country.

4. State of exception

As a result of the deadly attack suffered by Villavicencio, the elections will take place in the midst of a state of emergency decreed by the Government for 60 days throughout the national territory, which implies the deployment of the Armed Forces, to support nearly 60,000 police officers to maintain internal order, and the suspension of some fundamental rights such as the inviolability of the home.

5. From “cross death” to the polls

These extraordinary elections in Ecuador are born from the “cross death”the constitutional mechanism invoked in an unprecedented way by President Guillermo Lasso last May, with which he dissolved the National Assembly (Parliament), with an opposition majority, when it was preparing to vote on his dismissal, and thus forced the convening of these extraordinary elections.

6. Short term

The winners of the elections will complete the 2021-2025 period, so the new president will have a mandate of just over a year before the Andean country returns to the polls for new general elections with important challenges such as the possible decrease in oil production, one of the great pillars of the Ecuadorian economy.

7. The possible return of correísmo to power

These elections once again open up the opportunity for correísmo to return to power, something that it did not achieve with Andrés Arauz as a candidate in 2021 and that it hopes to achieve now with Luisa González, especially with a stronger party after the triumph of the Citizen Revolution, which she leads former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), in the local elections in February.

8. Absent ruling party

The ruling party, which represents the CREO movement, which led Lasso to the presidential chair in 2021, resigned from participating in these elections, in the same way that the current president made the decision not to stand for re-election to complete the presidential term for the who was originally elected just over two years ago.

9. Parity lists

These elections will be the first in Ecuador’s electoral history with fully equal lists, including the pairings for the Presidency and Vice Presidency, although in this case only correísmo has a woman as a candidate for president, in the figure of former correísta legislator González.

10. Telematic voting

Also for the first time, the more than 400,000 Ecuadorians registered abroad will be able to vote from their homes through a telematic voting platform in which they must previously register.

Source: EFE