The polls close in Ecuador and the scrutiny begins after a vote without incident

The ballot boxes for the extraordinary general elections of Ecuador and two environmental plebiscites against oil and mining in both natural areas closed this Sunday to make way for the start of counting the votes, on a day in which there were no incidents except for problems with the telematic vote.

The voting centers closed at 5:00 p.m. local time (22:00 GMT) after ten hours open, where since 7:00 a.m. (12:00 GMT) they have gone to vote for a large part of the 13.4 million voters who were summoned to elect a new president and the 137 new members of the National Assembly (Parliament).

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The vote took place under a state of emergency decreed by the Government after the assassination of the presidential candidate on August 9 Fernando Villavicencioriddled with bullets at the exit of an electoral rally in Quito, for which the Armed Forces reinforced the security of polling places throughout the country.

During voting time, no acts of violence related to the electoral process were reported, in a country affected by a growing wave of insecurity, which caused 2022 to close with 25.32 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest figure in its history .

Among residents abroad, where there are more than 400,000 Ecuadorians authorized to vote, 121,594 voters had registered on the computer platform of the National Electoral Council (CNE) at 15:45 local time (20:45 GMT), while a total of 44,941 had been able to cast their vote.

People queue to vote at a polling station in Quito during the Ecuadorian presidential election and the referendum on mining and oil, on August 20, 2023. (Photo: CAMILA BUENDIA / AFP)

In total there are eight candidates in the race to succeed the current president, the conservative William Lasso, among them the lawyer and ex-assembly member Luisa González, who seeks the return to power of correísmo; former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner and former legionnaire and security specialist businessman Jan Topic.

Also competing are the indigenous environmentalist Yaku Pérez, the businessmen Xavier Hervas and Daniel Noboa, the independent lawyer Bolívar Armijos and the journalist Christian Zurita, who made the decision to assume Villavicencio’s candidacy after the murder of his journalistic investigative colleague.

The winners of both the presidential and legislative elections will complete the 2021-2025 period, interrupted by Lasso last May by invoking the constitutional mechanism of “cross death”, with which he dissolved the Assembly, with an opposition majority, when it was available to vote for his dismissal as the last step in a political trial where he had been accused of alleged embezzlement (embezzlement).

Women vote at a polling station in Quito during Ecuador’s presidential elections and referendum on mining and oil, on August 20, 2023. (Photo: Camila BUENDIA / AFP)

Parallel to these general elections, Ecuadorians also voted two environmental plebiscites to ban oil and mining, respectively, in both natural areas.

The first, of a national nature, proposes stopping the exploitation of Block 43-ITT, one of the main oil deposits in the country, located in the Yasuni National Parkconsidered the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon and a global epicenter of biodiversity.

The second, which takes place only in Quito, asks if all types of legal mining are prohibited in the Choco Andeanan area of ​​mountainous forests declared a biosphere reserve in 2018 by Unesco and partially located within the metropolitan area of ​​the Ecuadorian capital.

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Source: Elcomercio