Yet Another Presidential Election

This past Sunday, after my monthly bookclub meeting, I went for a photo walk in the center of the city and stumbled on a rally for presidential candidate Daniel Noboa. So, I shot some photos.

If you have been reading my posts on Facebook you might ask “didn’t you just have a presidential election fairly recently?” Well, yes we did. Just eighteen months ago in fact. But,

This coming Sunday, February 9th, Ecuador will have yet another presidential election. The reason we are having another election so soon is because the previous president, Guillermo Lasso, on the day that the National Assembly was to vote on his impeachment, invoked the *muerte cuzada* or “crossed death” which dissolved the National Assembly and triggered new elections for both the executive and legislative branches. It was in that special election in August of 2023 that the current president, Daniel Noboa was elected to complete the final eighteen months of Lasso's term. So, now we have the regularly scheduled election in which the center-right Noboa is running as the incumbent and according to recent polling will likely be re-elected.

Noboa is young (37 years old) and very wealthy; his father is one of the richest men in South America. The candidate has dual Ecuadorian/US citizenship as he was born in Miami. Politically, he leans to the right. When he ran in 2023, he campaigned on promises to take on the drug cartels and clamp down on crime. When he first came to power, it looked as if he would keep his promise as he declared a state of emergency and went to “war” with the cartels and organized crime and started building new prisons to house them. At first he seemed to be making good progress in the fight against crime. More recently however, the cartels seem to be running amok once again the coastal regions of the country and the president has (in my opinion) done a poor job of managing the electricity crisis and doesn’t seem to have done anything to prevent the situation from becoming a recurring problem in the event of another drought.

In Ecuador, The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 4-year term. In order to win in the first round, a candidate must garner at least 40% of the vote and have a 10 point advantage over the closest rival. If they fail to hit these numbers, a second round vote will be held within 45 days and includes the top two vote getting candidates. The president serves a four-year term and may serve up to two terms. Voting is obligatory for all citizens between the ages of 18 and 64. It is optional for 16 to 17-year-olds and those 65 and older. Voting is optional for permanent residents like me. Elections are always held on a Sunday, and the country is “dry” (no alcohol can be sold) from noon Friday to noon Monday on election weekend and all land borders with neighboring countries are closed to minimize outside interference with the electoral process. Candidates can only campaign for 90 days prior to the election and campaigning is forbidden during the week prior to the Sunday vote. This system is fantastic as we aren’t subjected to a seemingly endless cycle of advertisements, debates, and speeches.

I am so looking forward to no more elections for a while!

~Hasta la proxima!