Ecuadorians and Ecuadorians, we have already triumphed! Contemporary history does not recall such persecution against a political group. “Former President Rafael Correa is not a candidate in tomorrow’s elections in the Andean country, but he does not hesitate to” close “his campaign through YouTube and from exile. It has varied on the planet, things seem to continue the same in Ecuador, which is torn between going back to the past or betting on change.
Thirteen million citizens are summoned to the polls, in the first electoral round and the midst of the pandemic. Around Correa, winner of the presidential elections in 2006, 2009, and 2013 and fundamental in 2017 (his candidate was the current president, Lenín Moreno, who took a few months to break with the citizen’s revolution mired by corruption), a campaign has gravitated atypical and disconcerting electoral process, without large concentrations and, above all, besieged by the coronavirus that has caused so much havoc in Ecuador, including the economic crisis and the loss of employment.
The pandemic has allowed Correísmo to take a second wind despite the golden exile of the one who has served as Nicolas Maduro’s star economic adviser and presenter on Vladimir Putin’s channel. Political scientists and experts believe that Correa has managed to regain his most staunch base, even though in the appointment of his standard-bearer, the 35-year-old former minister Andres Arauz, his loyalty has weighed more than his benefits as a candidate.The people are fed up with traitors. I can swear to them total loyalty to the citizen’s revolution,” claimed Arauz, poorly gifted in oratory, at his closing campaign on Thursday in Quito.
It matters little that Correa is a fugitive from justice sentenced to 8 years in prison for corruption. His chosen one is the main favorite to go to the second round together with the conservative Guillermo Lasso, at the head of the CREO Movement, who lost to Moreno in 2017 by only 2.32%. They are followed at a certain distance by the indigenous leader Yaku Pérez, of the Pachakutik movement, one of the great leaders of the 2019 protests.
All the polls point to a ballot in April, but the great dilemma is that few believe in the polls, due to the high rate of undecided, around 30%, and after the global surprises of Brexit, Donald Trump or the recent one in Bolivia.
In recent days there has been a certain growth of Perez because Lasso seems that he has not finished taking off, weighed down by the stigma of his social position, businessman and former president of the Bank of Guayaquil. The other 13 candidates appear far away. “The different candidates offer everything possible and impossible to capture the votes of different voters. The sad thing is that the offers are not serious and have, in many cases, fascist characteristics such as the death penalty, the right to bear arms, and other populists. such as the elimination of entrance exams for public universities, “Michel Levi, professor, and academic researcher, warned news agency.
Ecuador also elects 137 parliamentarians to its National Assembly. Among the public opinion, it has caused outrage that there are candidates with open files in the courts and even with prison orders for corruption cases. But if there is a populist proposal, that is, without a doubt, that of Arauz and the 1,000 dollars for a million families. “As soon as we get to the government we will finance the transfers to mothers so that mothers can reactivate the economy of this country,” promised the correct leader.
