The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, in the eleventh Ecuador-Colombia binational cabinet. José Jácome (EFE)
Ecuador is in electoral silence just hours away from going to the polls on Sunday, February 5 in some private elections.
Around 13.5 million Ecuadorians are called to vote for municipal elections, in which the 221 mayors will be renewed, but also 23 prefects (province governors), as well as municipal councilors, representatives of rural areas and, In addition, this time the members of the Citizen Participation Council will also be chosen, which elects the authorities of State institutions such as the prosecutor, the comptroller, among others.
There are 61,850 candidates, seven ballots that the Electoral Council has classified in colors to help distinguish them, there will be two amphoras to deposit them and facilitate the counting of the votes.
And in addition, the government has incorporated a constitutional referendum with eight questions into the electoral call.
The initial objective when President Guillermo Lasso proposed going to a popular consultation was to make legal reforms that would provide a solution -now yes- to the overwhelming problem of security, which is the main concern of Ecuadorians, where the homicide rate is 25 percent. per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in Latin America.
However, the final ballot will have eight questions in which only one has to do with security and to which President Lasso has bet everything, even over the political capital that he could obtain in the sectionals.
"The government is more concerned about the Assembly and the indigenous movement," says political analyst Jacobo García.
The ruling party has not put up strong candidates in the midterm elections, in the main cities like Quito and Guayaquil, it does not even participate, and in others it goes for alliances with different movements, when politics is done from the bottom up to have a connection with the territory, for this reason in “moments of crisis such as the social protest that lasted 18 days, since there was no unity between the central and local governments there were ruptures,
and some mayors took the opportunity to take a position for their benefit”, says sociologist Pablo Pardo.
And the government could need alliances in the face of the constant threat of indigenous mobilizations and dismissal from office, to which he was already subjected in his first year.
With the government party off the political board, its three main opponents could gain strength in the country: the party of former president Rafael Correa, the right with the Social Christian Party with allies, and Pachakutik, from the indigenous movements.
But also in a scenario of indecision where 58% of voters have expressed that they do not know who they will vote for and that unless voting is mandatory they would not go to the polls, many of the 221 municipalities will paint themselves as different political parties;
that is to say, the map of Ecuador will be fragmented, García analyzes, "there will be many places where it is foreseeable that the one who wins will do so with 25% or 30%, and that creates a problem of legitimacy."
And in the absence of clear and viable proposals that were absent in a campaign plagued by candidates dancing and acting on Tik Tok, voters will go with uncertainty on Sunday to fill out seven ballots.
Although it is not that far from the usual reality, because Ecuadorians have been summoned to the polls on 11 occasions through popular consultations and referendums for constitutional changes since the beginning of their democracy in 1978. The last time was the then President Lenín Moreno in February 2018. His predecessor, Rafael Correa used this resource four times.
Governments have used this tool as a political thermometer of his popularity, and on this occasion, in the midst of citizen discontent, President Lasso resorts to the same formula to have oxygen and finish his remaining two years in office.
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