Ecuadorians began voting this Sunday to elect their next president and the new legislature, in the midst of a state of emergency due to the violence that claimed the life of the candidate Fernando Villavicencio and the regime of terror imposed by drug trafficking, confirmed the AFP.
From 7 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon, voters will go to the polls to choose to the successor of Guillermo Lassowho anticipated the elections and dissolved the Legislature to avoid a dismissal in the middle of a political trial for corruption.
Two environmental plebiscites against oil and mining will also be decided.
(Read: Ecuadorian presidential candidate denounces a shooting near the place where he had breakfast)
After the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint, opened the day, a total of 4,390 polling stations began to open their doors on the morning of this Sunday, August 20. They are summoned to cover more than 13.4 million Ecuadorians.
(Read: “They tried to kill me”: the mayor of the province in Ecuador denounces an attack against him)
The vote is taking place under a state of emergency decreed by the Government after the assassination on August 9 of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, riddled with bullets as he left an electoral rally in Quito.
(Also: Elections in Ecuador: keys to voting this weekend)
Days before, the mayor of Manta, Agustín Intirago, had been murdered. And on Monday, August 14, the political leader, Pedro Briones, was killed in the province of Esmeraldas. Otto Sonnenholzner, presidential candidate and former vice president of Ecuador, and Francisco Tamaríz, mayor of La Libertad, in the coastal province of Santa Elena, denounced having been the target of an attack on them on the eve of the elections.
According to official reports, the Armed Forces are deployed throughout the country to reinforce the security of Ecuadorians.
WEATHER EDITORIAL
WITH INFORMATION FROM AFP AND EFE
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