On February 7, during the first round of the Ecuadorian presidential election, young Indian activist Nayra Chalan voted for Yaku Perez. By winning 19.39% of the vote, the candidate of the Pachakutik party created a surprise and narrowly missed the second round. Sunday April 11, Nayra will cross out her ballot: she does not want to endorse, she said, “Neither the electoral system nor the candidates running in the second round”. However, Andrés Arauz and Guillermo Lasso embody very different political projects. The first is a 36-year-old socialist economist, heir-designate of former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and his Union for Hope (UNES) party. The curator Guillermo Lasso, he does not have a diploma, but he was a banker. At 67, he is a presidential candidate for the third time, under the colors of the party he founded, CREO (By creating opportunities).
Nayra refuses to choose “Between the Corréist pseudo-left and the neoliberal right, both of which defend a development model based on mining”. Rafael Correa was not kind to the Indian movement, which had nevertheless supported his coming to power in 2007. “Without being able to co-opt it, he tried to destroy it”, sums up left-wing economist Pablo Davalos. The Pachakutik-New Country Plurinational Unity Movement, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) and Yaku Perez therefore called for a draw in the second round. But the instruction was not unanimous. All Indians, no more than environmentalists, do not agree on what to do on April 11.
Thirteen million voters – 7% of whom define themselves as Amerindians – are called to the polls this Sunday, April 11 to decide between the two candidates. Voting is compulsory in Ecuador, including in times of pandemic. The state of emergency decreed last week in eight provinces to cope with a new peak of contagion should not weigh on participation.
“Federate anti-correism”
The latest polls published give Mr. Arauz a slight lead, who came first in the first round with 32.72% of the vote. But the gap has narrowed, and Mr. Lasso, who had obtained only 19.79% in the first round, is behind him. An official of the National Electoral Council does not hide his fear “Having to announce a result that is too tight to be credible”. Yaku Perez continues to dispute the figures of the first round, which the electoral authorities took two weeks to announce. Its voters, Indians or urban youth, are largely convinced that there has been fraud.
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