South America
Climate of fear – Election in Ecuador after candidate murder
Presidential candidate Luisa González leaves the polling station after casting her vote. photo
© Ariel Ochoa/AP/dpa
The Ecuadorian electoral authorities are calling on voters not to let the violence stop them. Tens of thousands of soldiers are to ensure security during the early elections.
The left-wing politician Luisa González from the camp of former President Rafael Correa (2007 to 2017), who was convicted of corruption, was the favorite in the early presidential election, followed by the indigenous environmental activist Yaku Pérez and the German-born former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner.
In addition to the head of state, the members of the national assembly of the country with a population of 17 million were also up for election. The polling stations should be open until midnight German time, the first results are expected early Monday morning.
Great security precautions
Around ten days after the assassination of opposition candidate Fernando Villavicencio, the president of Ecuador’s electoral authority, Diana Atamaint, said at the start of the election: “Despite the events of the past few weeks, which have caused great suffering to the Ecuadorians (…), these acts of violence will not affect us stop, because peace and democracy are defended by all of us.”
The armed forces, police and electoral authorities have put in place a security plan that will guarantee peaceful, orderly and secure elections. “Today democracy wins, today Ecuador wins.”
Nevertheless, the situation is very tense, said political analyst Andrés González of the German Press Agency. “The elections are very dangerous, there is a climate of fear.” Candidates wore bulletproof vests and were surrounded by security forces to vote, while the military showed an increased presence with tens of thousands of soldiers in the streets and at polling stations.
The security measures in eight polling stations in the province of Esmeraldas in the northwest of the country have been strengthened because they are in conflict zones, the newspaper “El Universo” reported. The military would hand out the election documents there.
Shot after a campaign rally
The opposition politician and former investigative journalist Villavicencio was shot dead a week and a half ago after an election campaign in the capital Quito. The government blamed organized crime for the crime. The party Construye (“Build”) presented the journalist Christian Zurita as a new candidate.
Another local politician was killed Monday in Esmeraldas, strategically located on Ecuador’s Pacific coast and border with Colombia. Ecuador serves as a transit country for cocaine, and crime syndicates fight over drug trafficking routes. Villavicencio had announced that he would crack down on corruption and crime.
“We will change the course of our Ecuador,” wrote the German-born presidential candidate and former Vice President Sonnenholzner on Sunday on Platform X, which was formerly known as Twitter.
Candidate González also put change on the card: “Vote with the belief that better days of security and prosperity will soon come. Today we will make history!”
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. If none of the presidential candidates 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.
There were also two referendums on oil production in the Yasuní National Park in the Amazon region and mining in the cloud forests of the Chocó Andino. Ecuador is popular with tourists not least because of the Amazon forest, the many active volcanoes, the beaches and the Galápagos Islands, which are known for their wildlife.