Ecuador envisions unprecedented and extraordinary elections

Quito (BLAZETRENDS).- One day after the “shock” caused by the “cross death” decreed by President Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador began to envision unprecedented and extraordinary general elections to be held in the coming months.

With Lasso’s decision to resort to that constitutional mechanism of “cross death”, which means dissolving the National Assembly (Parliament). And hold new general elections, the Andean country will have three electoral processes to elect president and assembly members in the span of four years.

To the one developed in 2021 where the Presidency was left in the hands of the conservative Lasso and the Assembly under the control of a left-wing opposition. Now some extraordinary elections will come whose authorities will be elected to complete the 2021-2025 period, so that in 2025 Ecuadorians will return to the polls.

Since the 2008 Constitution, promoted by former President Rafael Correa, came into force, the “cross death” had never been used. So it will be the first time in these fifteen years that these extraordinary general elections will take place in the middle of a period.

Relative calm after the swing

The imminence of the electoral process has immediately focused the political formations on preparing the board for that appointment, so the country woke up with relative calm in the streets despite the political ups and downs led by Lasso when he saw that the impeachment of censorship undertaken by the opposition against him.

Rather than being dismissed by an opposition Parliament on charges of an alleged crime of embezzlement (embezzlement) that he always rejected and described as unfounded, Lasso preferred to cut his mandate almost in half and, even for a few months, govern by decree-law in urgent economic matters that must pass the review of the Constitutional Court.

The voices that were raised on Wednesday to denounce the use of “cross death” as unconstitutional in a context of probable dismissal by the Assembly awaited the ruling of the Constitutional Court after the lawsuits filed, among others, by the conservative Social Christian Party (PSC).

Elections in Ecuador in November

For now, the National Electoral Council (CNE) has until May 24 to call the extraordinary general elections. Although its president, Diana Atamaint, tentatively anticipated the schedule that this process could have.

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The first round could be held on August 20 and the second round, if necessary, on October 15. Therefore, the new president would take office around November, Atamaint said in a preliminary way before finalizing the schedule. It could also shorten the electoral campaign from 45 to 15 days.

Another aspect still to be clarified is which candidates will contest these elections for the Presidency, especially if one takes into account that the winner will have to serve a term of less than two years, in the midst of an insecurity crisis led by drug trafficking and organized crime. .

Although Lasso has the option of running for re-election, he has not yet ruled on the matter, while in the rest of the opposition political forces there are no leaders or profiles who have firmly expressed their willingness to launch themselves to take over the reins of the country. .

Arauz asks to form a “historic bloc”

In an interview with BLAZETRENDS in Washington, the former Correísmo candidate Andrés Arauz, who lost the 2021 elections to Lasso, assured this Thursday that it is not his “personal priority” to repeat as a candidate, this time under the brand of the Citizen Revolution (RC). ), the party led by Correa.

Arauz considered it necessary for these new elections to form a great coalition called the “historic bloc” that shelters the various social movements. Including the indigenous movement (Pachakutik), unlike what happened two years ago.

Meanwhile, Yaku Pérez, who in 2021 was on the verge of going to the second round instead of Arauz, did not anticipate his intentions for these elections either, beyond pointing out that it is time for a “national reconciliation”.

Meanwhile, the Lasso government hopes to be able to apply the largest number of decrees in urgent economic matters. Some of which he failed to get out through the Assembly, which controlled the opposition, with correísmo as the first force.

After having sent the decree law of the new tax reform, which raises expense deductions to reduce income tax, for analysis by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday, the Executive also plans to send the decree to create free zones for study, as anticipated the Minister of Government, Henry Cucalón.

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