Elections in Ecuador: two examples, and many are still undecided …

From Quito. Ecuador at the gates of the presidential elections. The campaigns officially ended on Thursday when Andres Arause and Guillermo Lasso concluded their business in Quito and Guayaquil, the two main capitals. The country is now in the late afternoon before going to the polls. Surveys refer to two main elements: Voting difference in favor of the Corismo candidate and a high percentage of white and false votes.

The second component appears to be crucial. The rate of normal voting and white votes is usually around 10 and 12 percent in Ecuador. This time, however, the number of respondents appears at a maximum of 36, an element that makes the election prospects unstable. Will those votes remain null and void? Do they go to one of the candidates by a greater percentage? They are some of the main questions.

This configuration indicates that a high percentage, about a third of the electorate, could vote on the same Sunday in front of the polls. The existence of this situation is due to several factors, such as, for example, uncertainty about where votes will go in the first round Yaco PerezAnd the third and Xavier Hervas, Bedrooms. Another element is how a decision is made by the major indigenous movement. Federation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONNE) To preserve the call for the “ideological vain” vote, a position that is, however, not monolithic, given the fact that a cosmic president, Jaime Vargas, He publicly called for a vote for Arrows.

National Electoral Council (CNE) He announced that all parts of the electoral process are ready for publication on Sunday, with the necessary biosecurity measures, on a day that will start at 7 am and end at 5 pm. Ten missions and 11 groups of international observers are already in the country, such as Organization of American States, Parlasur, Latin American Council of Election Experts, Pan American Federation of Electoral Organizations, European Union Delegation, Progressive International Organization or Puebla Group.

The council announced, after its plenary session on Friday, that there would be no quick count on Sunday, unlike in the first round. The scrutiny and processing time, according to information from the election authority, will be less than the first round, with 16 candidates participating, and The electoral system for transmitting records and results, Which means that “from the moment the first data is obtained from the auditing of receiving boards, it will be available online by political organizations and will have evidentiary power.” The first minutes, as reported Diana AtmentCNE President, it’ll be uploading around 7 in the afternoon.

Thus, everything is ready for the second round, which will take place under the supervision of many national and international actors, as part of an electoral process in which many people will participate. Violation complaints From the moment the nominations were registered, in particular the Arrows nomination. Threats about the race persist, he said Union for Hope Thursday:

“Ecuador calls for a democratic and transparent electoral process that ensures compliance with the popular will (…) Those who are part of the United Nations coalition are alerting the international community and the general public about possible interference that endangers natural development. From the elections. April 11th.”

One of the central importance of the competition in Ecuador is that it will enter two completely different forms. On the one hand, Lasso is coming from The Bank of Guayaquil – One of the most important of them in the state – centrally represents financial capital with a proposal to deepen neoliberalism, a continuation of the project implemented by the current government. Correismo indicates that he co-ruled Lenin MorenoWhether in the economic sphere or in politics, by agreeing, for example, to the suppression of the indigenous and popular uprising that took place in October 2019, in which 11 protesters were killed and a number of them maimed.

With regard to foreign policy, the Lasso model, like all Latin American rights, represents compatibility with the US foreign agenda, with boycotting continental integration processes independent of Washington, subordination in matters of security and defense, and recognition of the “interim president.” Juan Guaidó In Venezuela, the pressure not to establish more contacts with China, especially with regard to communications and technology.

On the other hand, Arrouz was presented as a renewed continuation of the citizens’ revolution, the project that she chaired Raphael Correa, Who was from 2007 to 2017 in the presidency and later was betrayed and persecuted by the Moreno government. Arause, an economist by training, made a progressive proposal, focusing on the health dimension, employment, in-house production, debt relief for households, merchants, and small businesses, one of the central issues of Ecuadorian society.

Regarding his foreign agenda, the Citizen Revolution Candidate has emphasized the need to (re) weaponize regional integration tools, such as Unasur and Celac, and has already taken political approaches with many personalities in Latin America, such as Evo Morales, Alberto Fernandez and Pepe Mujica. His victory, if it happened, would mean the rise of a fourth progressive government in four years in Latin America, after a victory Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador In Mexico in 2018, Fernandez in 2019, and Lewis Ars In Bolivia last year.

Thus, Sunday’s elections will be a central point in shaping the map of regional powers that are in conflict between the right-wing and progressive governments. The Ecuador contest will take place in conjunction with the first presidential round in Peru, and A look at Brazil’s 2022 presidential election, With the horizon set to rebuild a continental bloc in times of geopolitical clashes.