With concerts, caravans and popular food, the campaign for local elections in Ecuador concluded this Thursday, where 5,660 authorities will be electedincluding 221 mayors, 864 urban councillors, 443 rural councilors and 4,109 parish council members.
The 61,850 candidates registered with the National Electoral Council (CNE) for these elections made his latest effort to convince undecided voters before entering a three-day electoral silence that will culminate in the vote on Sunday.
In accordance with his musical career, the former mayor of Quito Jorge Yunda concluded his campaign with a concert by local groups in a populous area in the south of the Ecuadorian capital, where he also presented a documentary about his figure.
Yundaof leftist tendency, appears this time as a candidate of the indigenous and plurinational movement Pachakutik and aims to win the Quito mayoral elections again, despite the fact that he was dismissed in 2021 due to allegations of corruption.
One of its main competitors, Pabel Muñozfrom the Citizen Revolution movement, close to former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) had an intense agenda where he planted trees to recover green areas in Quito, danced at a party on a terrace in the center of Quito and then ended in another festive act with music and popular food.
In her turn, Paola Pabón, the prefect of Pichincha, a province whose capital is Quito, made a great caravan in her aspiration to be re-elected in office with her candidacy also under the brand of the Citizen Revolution and Correa.
MAYOR OF GUAYAQUIL FACED WITH LASSO
Meanwhile, in the port city of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s main economic enginethe conservative mayor Cynthia Viteri held a rally in search of re-election and to maintain the hegemony of the Social Christian Party (PSC) in the capital of the coastal province of Guayas.
For Viteri, the last days of the campaign have been marked by a verbal dispute with the president of Ecuador, the also conservative Guillermo Lasso, who has announced that he will not vote for her, although he did not mention his name.
"I will not vote for who has destroyed the finances of the Municipality of Guayaquil in the last four years"said during an act with students Lasso, who is a native of Guayaquil and who came to the Presidency in 2021 in alliance with the PSC.
The response from Viteri was not long in coming, who considered that the national government should leave "if it does not give us health, education, or security".
It is not the first time that Lasso and Viteri have had a disagreementlike other previous ones on the budgetary allocations of the Government to the Municipality of Guayaquil and the security policy, in the face of the crisis that the city is experiencing, the scene of frequent bloody actions by drug trafficking and organized crime.
THE NETWORKS, THE STRENGTH OF THE CAMPAIGN
Thus concluded a campaign with few mass events in the streets and with a lot of activity on social networks, where the candidates have made an effort andn try to reach the mobile devices of every voter instead of summoning them in a physical space to listen to their proposals and approaches.
In the virtual space there has been no fear of ridicule on the part of the candidates, who in an attempt to capture the young vote have even disguised themselves as a rapper, like the candidate for mayor of Quito Andrés Páez, chain on his chest, or Mayra Montaño, Guayas candidate, who simulated machine-gunning criminals.
More than 13.4 million Ecuadorians are summoned to the polls on Sunday, in this election where voting is mandatory for people between the ages of 18 and 65 and optional for those over 65 and adolescents between 16 and 18, as well as for the military and police.
Together with the local authorities, the new Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) will also be elected, a body made up of seven members who are in charge of appointing State authorities such as the attorney general, the comptroller and the members of the CNE.
At the same time, a referendum promoted by the Government will be voted to modify the Constitution in matters of security, democracy, institutions and the environment which, among other issues, proposes to eliminate the power to designate CPCCS authorities to be chosen by the National Assembly (Parliament ).