Eight candidates, including businessmen and former congressmen, registered to participate in the early general elections to be held in Ecuador on August 20, after President Guillermo Lasso dissolved Congress.
The National Electoral Council (CNE), in its most recent balance on the candidacies, indicated that it received eight applications for the registration of binomials, which completed the registration of 100 percent of the applicants who had been elected in the primaries of the different political parties.
The first to register was the businessman Daniel Noboa (right), son of magnate Álvaro Noboa, who sought the presidency five times.
Other businessmen who entered the race are Jan Topic, linked to security and telecommunications firms and a former sniper for the French Foreign Legion, and Xavier Hervas, who participated in the previous elections.
Otto Sonnenholzner, who was vice president of Lenín Moreno (2017-2021) between December 2018 and July 2020, also registered.
The indigenous leader Yaku Pérez, who came third in the 2021 elections, will once again seek the position of head of state. Nory Pineda, vice-rector of the Ecotec University, will accompany him on the ballot.
(Also read: Yaku Pérez, former indigenous presidential candidate, announces his candidacy in Ecuador)
For its part, the party related to the influential former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) registered former deputy Luisa Gonzalez, who is the only female candidate for the presidency.
González is running in tandem with former presidential candidate in 2021 and now vice-presidential candidate Andrés Arauz, for the Revolución Ciudadana movement.
For the first time in these elections, required by law, the parties had to present pairs made up of a man and a woman.
(You may be interested: Lasso says that with the ‘cross death’ he closes a crisis chapter in Ecuador)
Other candidates are Fernando Villavicencio, a journalist, former union leader, former assembly member and harsh critic of correísmo, and Bolívar Armijos, a lawyer and former leader of a council of local governments.
Ecuador will have early general elections to complete the current period, which ends in 2025, after the dissolution of Congress by Lasso.
The unpopular ruler, 67, decided not to participate in the upcoming elections, alleging that he would dedicate his last months at the head of the Executive to try to meet the goals of his government.
In addition to the president, Ecuadorians will have to elect 137 representatives for the Legislature, which traditionally has low credibility.
Once the candidacy registration stage is completed, the CNE plenary will review the technical-legal reports that verify compliance with legal requirements and that they are not immersed in constitutional incapacities for the official qualification of the presidential candidates and the lists of national assembly members. .
(You can read: ‘Ecuador lives the times of Pablo Escobar in Colombia’, what is happening?)
The extraordinary presidential elections will have their first round on August 20 and, if necessary, on October 15 a second round will be held between the two candidates with the most votes for the Presidency.
On the same date as the general elections, two popular consultations will be held promoted by groups of environmentalists who seek to stop oil and mining exploitation in two areas declared biosphere reserves.
(Keep reading: Ungovernability once again looms in Ecuador after the dissolution of Congress)
The country will decide whether to leave the oil in the ITT block (Ishpingo, Tiputini and Tambococha) underground, located in the Amazon region of Yasuní, one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet and where peoples live in voluntary isolation.
On the other hand, the inhabitants of Quito, a city of three million inhabitants, will decide whether or not to give way to mining on any scale in the Chocó Andino (northwest of the Ecuadorian capital), home of the threatened spectacled bear
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With AFP and EFE
#candidates #seek #presidency #Ecuador #August #elections