Citizen Revolution asks that Ecuador’s elections be repeated abroad

Citizen revolutionthe Ecuadorian political party that won the elections last Sunday, calls from Europe for the elections to be repeated abroad, after having reported failures and cyberattacks in telematic voting.

In statements to EFE, the director of Revolución Ciudadana Europa, Margarita Guerrero, confirmed this Tuesday that only about 81,000 Ecuadorians on the continent registered on the platform to vote, of which almost 24,000 finally succeeded, less than 10% of the full electoral roll.

According to Guerrero, the voting system abroad is designed so that “the fewest number of people possible vote” and the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador He conducted “testimonial” and “very deficient” training.

“Only the first hour, from 9 to 10, people were able to vote normally. It was the moment where participation rose to 13,000 people. From 10 until the closing time, only 10,000 people increased”, detailed.

“The voting pace was extremely slow. Only one in ten Ecuadorians managed to vote”, expressed Guerrero, who also stressed that the platform failed in all instances.

“There were people who couldn’t even register (…) and on election day, when you entered the platform and voted, you received a verification code. Many people did not receive that code, many received it yesterday or today during the early morning”denounced.

The Ecuadorian announced that the CNE is waiting for a technical report to define if the elections abroad are repeated.

On Monday the electoral observation mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) who supervised the elections asked the Ecuadorian electoral body to carry out a “serious and deep reflection” on telematic voting.

The vote of Ecuadorians abroad represents 3% of the register, which according to Guerrero “does not significantly alter the candidacies”, but it could define a second round election, as is the case in this case.

Last Sunday, the candidate of the Citizen Revolution, the correísta Luisa Gonzalezwon by 33.3% of the votes and will go to the second round on October 15 with businessman Daniel Noboa, who had 23.66%.

During the Ecuadorian electoral day Those registered in European countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom denounced problems in telematic voting, one of the novelties of these elections.

The CNE reported that the system suffered cyberattacks from countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia and China.

Revolución Ciudadana was the party that during the electoral campaign had most promoted the vote in countries that have larger communities of Ecuadorians abroad.

More than 400,000 Ecuadorians were authorized to vote abroad, of which 113,434 had registered on the CNE computer platform to exercise telematic voting.

In these extraordinary elections, Ecuadorians elect a new president and the 137 new members of the National Assembly or Parliament.