2023-08-20 22:18:44
Los Elections in Ecuador to elect the next president closed this Sunday following a day marked by a strong deployment of the public force following the assassination of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and the outbreak of violence linked to drug trafficking.
The tense day ended at 7:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. in Ecuador) to elect president and vice president, as well as the 137 congressmen who will complete the current four-year term scheduled until May 2025. Some 13.4 of the 18.3 million of Ecuadorians were called to exercise the compulsory vote.
The electoral authority has until September 23 to give the final results of the elections. A preliminary unofficial count is expected to begin in regarding two hours. to see who will succeed the right-wing Guillermo Lasso, according to the authorities.
The Villavicencio crime, which occurred on August 9, shook the electoral map and opened up a mystery regarding the outcome of the elections, in which everything indicates that none will have enough margin to avoid the ballot on October 15.
Candidates voted protected by strong security schemes, while the military and police searched people at the entrance to the polling stations. The previously peaceful country has in recent years become a center of operations for foreign and local drug cartels that impose a regime of terror with killings, kidnappings and extortion.
A day marked by the assassination of the candidate Fernando Villavicencio
The face of the late Villavicencio, a former centrist journalist who was second in the polls before his assassination, appeared on the ballots along with seven other candidates, because they were already in print when he was shot by a Colombian hitman.
replaced it in the candidacy journalist Christian Zurita, his best friend and partner in investigations that exposed major corruption scandals, one of which led to the sentence of former President Rafael Correa to eight years in prison.
Faced with death threats on Saturday, candidate Christian Zurita had to go to vote surrounded by soldiers in helmets and bulletproof vests in Quito. “These are difficult and dark times for the country (…) We are going to defend with determination what it means to move forward” to Ecuador, he asserted following voting.
Who are the presidential candidates in Ecuador
Christian Zurita, the unexpected replacement
“They killed my friend,” wrote Christian Zurita on the X social network when he found out regarding Villavicencio’s assassination. So there was nothing to indicate that this 53-year-old award-winning investigative journalist would assume the role of his colleague.
Together with Villavicencio, he wrote the book “Arroz Verde”, a compilation of reports that uncovered the bribery case for which Correa was sentenced to eight years in prison.
In 2011, the former president sued Zurita and his colleague Juan Carlos Calderón for non-pecuniary damages for the publication of a book that revealed his brother’s irregular contracts. A judge ordered them to pay two million dollars in compensation, but the case was closed at the request of the former ruler.
Always wearing a bulletproof vest in his public appearances, Zurita upholds the fight once morest corruption and maintains that Villavicencio’s political project “is intact.”
Luisa González, Correa’s candidate
Luisa González, the only woman in the running, affirms that her main adviser will be the charismatic former president Correa, sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption and who resides in Belgium. Immediately followingwards, she remarks that she will maintain independence in his decisions.
A 45-year-old cyclist, marathon runner and lover of tattoos, González is the card of the socialist left to regain power following six years.
“All we did was ten years and they destroyed us in two hours,” he said, referring to the turn to the right that Ecuador took from the government of the successor Lenin Moreno, which correísmo labels “traitorous.”
The Christian lawyer, mother of two boys aged 29 and 9, was an assembly member before launching her candidacy in tandem with Andrés Arauz, who lost in the last ballot.
His formula is to revitalize correísmo following the legacy of his mentor, at a time when Ecuador suffers unprecedented violence due to drug trafficking and gangs.
Yaku Pérez, for the rematch
The son of farm laborers, the indigenous lawyer Yaku Pérez was left at the gates of the 2021 ballot by just 30,000 votes. Now, raising the banner of environmental causes, he seeks revenge on him.
Pérez, 54, is betting twice in these elections: for his candidacy and for the environmental consultations that will also be held on Sunday and that aim to stop oil activity in two mega-diverse areas.
“It will be a message to the world that in Ecuador life is taken care of (…) and that we have ethical authority to be able to combat global warming,” he said.
Originally from the Kichwa Kañari people, in 2017 he changed his first name, Carlos Ranulfo, to Yaku Sacha, which means “Mount Water”, as it was in keeping with his tireless defense of water sources, a fight that has even earned him the jail.
Pérez, a harsh critic of correísmo, assures that he represents a left far from “authoritarianism.”
Jac Topic, the Ecuadorian “Bukele”
Jan Topic is nicknamed “the Ecuadorian Bukele” for his heavy-handed speech once morest the mafias that operate in prisons and whose confrontations have left more than 430 dead inmates since February 2021.
His letter of introduction is his participation as a sniper in the French Foreign Legion (2006-2011), with which he fought in the Central African Republic and the Ivory Coast. He was also a volunteer in the war in Syria (2012) and in Ukraine once morest the Russian invasion (one month in 2022).
He assures that he is the only candidate with “temper and determination to act” to put illegal organizations in check, a speech that gained popularity following the assassination of Villavicencio.
During the campaign, it has even temporarily installed signal jammers outside one of Ecuador’s most dangerous prisons to demonstrate its capability. At 40 years old, with a beard and tattoos, this businessman in the security and telecommunications sector rejects being called a “mercenary.”
Otto Sonnenholzner, a former vice president in search of power
Otto Sonnenholzner, of German descent, made an unexpected foray into Ecuadorian politics when Congress elected him as vice president of a shortlist sent by Moreno (2017-2021). He spent 19 months in office, which he resigned when Ecuador was barely recovering from the health crisis unleashed by the pandemic.
Sonnenholzner, a 40-year-old economist and businessman, sums up his proposal in three words: peace, money and progress.
“We are in an unprecedented situation in terms of insecurity,” he commented. His plan is to strengthen the justice and intelligence services to fight drug trafficking and its tentacles, which he aspires to “hit in the pockets.”
The other contenders, with remote chances of victory, are Daniel Noboa, Bolívar Armijos and Xavier Hervas.
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