Ecuador elects a new president amid a looming escalation of violence. In the country that has become the scene of drug-related crime, the homicide rate is skyrocketing.
Quito – A week and a half after the assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio, Ecuadorians are electing a new president. Eight candidates are running for the highest office in the state in the snap elections on Sunday (20 August).
The favorite was Luisa González from the camp of ex-President Rafael Correa, followed by the indigenous environmental activist Yaku Pérez and the German-born former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner. In addition to the president, the Ecuadorians also elect the members of the National Assembly and vote on two referendums on oil production in the Yasuní National Park in the Amazon region and mining in the cloud forests of the Chocó Andino.
If none of the candidates in the presidential election achieves an absolute majority or at least 40 percent of the votes with a ten percentage point lead over the runner-up, there will be a runoff on October 15. The most recent polls indicated that no candidate can prevail directly in the first round.
Elections in Ecuador are overshadowed by high crime and escalation of violence
Opposition candidate Villavicencio was shot dead on Wednesday last week (9 August) after an election campaign event in the capital, Quito. The government of the South American country blamed organized crime for the crime. Ecuador serves as a transit country for cocaine, and several crime syndicates fight for control of the smuggling routes. Once peaceful Ecuador has become a scene of international drug crime, with a murder rate higher than Mexico and Colombia.
Villavicencio had announced that he would crack down on corruption and crime. His party Construye (“Build”) presented the journalist Christian Zurita as a new candidate. The early presidential and parliamentary elections had become necessary because the conservative head of state Guillermo Lasso had dissolved the National Assembly in the middle of impeachment proceedings for alleged embezzlement against him. (dpa / AFP)
#violence #threatens #escalate