In Ecuador, political parties are getting ready to register their candidates for the early presidential and legislative elections to be held on August 20, elections that were called after the country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, decreed ‘cross death’ and dissolve the National Assembly.
In the country there are 279 political organizations approved by the National Electoral Council (CNE), a figure that includes national, provincial, cantonal and parochial parties and movements. However, in accordance with the regulations, only national political spaces, which currently number 17, can present candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the Republic.
The term for the registration of the candidacies is only 13 days. It opened last Sunday May 28 and will close on June 10. Parties can choose their candidates through their internal democracy processes or primary elections.
The Citizen Revolution (RC) movement, led by former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), has not yet announced the pairing that will go for that political space. Its president, Marcela Aguinaga, said last week, in an interview with Ecuavisa, that she was “analyzing the names” of possible candidates.
“We have several cadres, valuable men and women who can take over”, indicated. The politician, current prefect of the province of Guayas, considers that the possible candidate must be a militant of correismo, “a partner who legitimizes his loyalty and commitment.”
On Sunday, through her social networks, the leader also asked for patience. “Well, and the million dollar question, who will be the pairing of the Citizen Revolution? Well, we are going to tell you soon, so hold your anxiety,” she said.
One of the pairings being considered is the same one that faced Lasso in 2021, made up of Andres Arauz and Carlos Rabascall. That duo won the first round of the elections at that time, but was defeated by the current president in the second round.
Arauz, 38, has a degree in Economics and Mathematics, a Master’s in Development Economics and a doctoral student in Financial Economics. He served as coordinating minister of Knowledge and Human Talent, between 2015 and 2017, and was in charge of the Culture and Heritage portfolio in 2017. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Progressive International, founded in 2020.
Rabascall is also considered to run for president, rather than vice president. This 62-year-old man is a journalist, commercial engineer, businessman and political consultant. He held the position of Director of Institutional Development of the extinct National Secretariat for Administrative Development (SENDA), an organization attached to the Presidency of the Republic; and he was a member of the National Modernization Council (CONAM), also suppressed.
Another of the names that sounds within correismo as a possible candidate for the Presidency is that of Luisa Gonzalez, one of the assembly members dismissed with the ‘cross death’. She was Secretary of Public Administration in the final stretch of Correa’s term.
Last week the names of the former assembly members were also heard Viviana Velozwho was in charge of a political trial against Lasso that was taking place in Parliament when the president dissolved that instance, and Pamela Aguirre.
Correismo arrives at these elections at its best moment, since it consolidated itself as the main political force in the country in the sectional elections on February 5.
Other candidates
For other organizations, he would also be a candidate Leonidas Iza, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), who would go for Pachakutik, the political arm of the movement; as well as Yaku Perez, who in 2021 was a candidate for the Presidency for that organization and now receives the support of Democracia Si and Unidad Popular.
Other pre-candidates are ex-assembly member Daniel Noboa Azin, supported by the Pueblo Igualdad Democratica (PID) party; he is also a former legislator Fernando Villavicencio, backed by the Build movement; the former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner, who has spoken with several organizations to promote his candidacy; economist and international security expert Jan Topic, which has the support of the Social Christian Party (PSC); and the businessman and publicist Eduardo Maruri, for the political organization Centro Democratico.
Lasso’s pro-government Movement Creating Opportunities (CREO) has not announced a candidate.
The electoral campaign for these elections will last a few days, since it was established between August 8 and 17; and a debate was included for the 13th of that month, a week before the citizens go to vote.
In addition to the president and vice president, in the elections the 137 assembly members who will make up the National Assembly of Ecuador must be elected: 15 nationals, 116 provincials and 6 from abroad.
All elected authorities will take office to finish the period that the dismissed officials began in 2021; that is, they will be there until May 2025.
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Source: RT
