Ecuador and Peru elect president on April 11 amid a growing pandemic that has exacerbated isolation measures and after a general indifference that makes it difficult to imagine a clear winner in both countries. The Ecuadorians will elect their new president in the second round between the leftist Andrés Arauz and the rightist Guillermo Lasso. In Peru, there is no favorite among the 18 candidates in the first round, so it seems that a second ballot will be necessary. The day is completed in Bolivia with regional elections in four departments.
Great electoral day in Latin America. Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia go to the polls under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic that, in addition to the fatalities and the health emergency, has plummeted the economy. A key issue with which the candidates hope to convince the electorate with their proposals.
The undecided are the protagonists in the final stretch. “I am afraid of electing the wrong candidate and that his plans will sink us further,” said Javier Guevara, an Ecuadorian student who has not yet defined his vote for this Sunday.
No candidate in every nation has garnered enough support to be a clear favorite, and after a year of collective suffering and corruption scandals, citizens seem to be hoping for a winner who can pull them out of the economic chaos of the pandemic with the fewest stumbles possible.
The protracted public health crisis has also brought long-standing inequities and lack of investment in this area to the table, in which some put their magnifying glass to make a decision.
Ecuador, between neoliberalism or the return to socialism
The country is divided on account of the elections. Ecuadorians face a second round between conservative banker Guillermo Lasso and leftist Andrés Arauz, political dolphin of former President Rafael Correa. The winner will succeed President Lenín Moreno, a former Correa ally who turned against him while he was in office and is not seeking reelection.
There are two opposing political and economic models that face each other in the ballot. After the first round of February 7, in which Arauz was in first place, but with around 30% of the votes, far from the more than 50% necessary to declare a winner without a ballot, Ecuadorians will finally have to take a decision.
Both promise to overcome the serious economic crisis, but each with a different proposal. The 37-year-old leftist is betting on social benefits. Among its most striking plans is the proposal to give $ 1,000 to one million poor families, in addition to providing benefits to young people, such as jobs, scholarships and free Internet access.
Arauz has the backing of Rafael Correa. The former president continues to be very influential politically despite a conviction for corruption, which he rejects, and which forces him to remain in Belgium, beyond the reach of Ecuadorian prosecutors.
The representative of the possible return of Correísmo has proposed to make the rich pay more taxes, to desist from agreements with the International Monetary Fund and to seek legal mechanisms to force the repatriation of the deposits that Ecuadorians have abroad. Measures that contrast with those of his opponent: former banker Guillermo Lasso.
The center-right candidate aims mainly at job creation. In his campaign events, he has also assured that he will promote investment in infrastructure, neighborhood roads, “credit to small farmers, small ranchers and artisans”, at 1% interest and a 30-year term.
Lasso has lost the last two presidential races. It favors free market policies and Ecuador’s approach to international organizations. It modified its previous conceptual message since moving into the second round, offering specific proposals such as raising the minimum wage to $ 500, finding ways to include more youth and women in the job market, and eliminating fees for farm equipment.
“The followers of Arauz and Correa say that it is a dispute between neoliberalism and a vision of a more state management of public resources, they call it post-neoliberal (…) I don’t know how much they can do with resources so exhausted. Honestly, it’s a total disaster, and there’s a lot of pent-up anger, ”said Carlos de la Torre, director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida.
The pandemic paralyzed 70% of businesses in Ecuador in 2020 and brought the country’s unemployment rate to nearly 68%. The country had already gone through an economic slowdown that began in 2015, largely driven by falling oil prices.
Added to the political, ideological and economic divisions is the division between the nation’s indigenous movement, which has expelled several of its members from its ranks for publicly supporting one of the two candidates for the Carondelet Palace, despite the commitment they made. this political movement for the null vote.
They reached that agreement in response to the fact that their candidate, Yaku Pérez, was in third place and out of the second round, after the National Electoral Council (CNE) refused to reopen around 28,000 minutes to count the votes. The nation’s indigenous community groups insist that there was fraud against Pérez.
The dispute over the votes of the indigenous community has also taken over the contest, after they represented around 19% of the ballots, a figure that would be crucial to define a winner this Sunday, as the latest survey by researcher Market predicts that there will be a technical tie.
Peru: 18 candidates and none would obtain more than 10% of the votes, according to polls
Peruvians face an overwhelming list of 18 candidates. The second round in June is practically assured. All seats in Congress are also disputed on this day.
The contest follows years of political turmoil that has seen a string of presidents, and even the entire Congress, toppled by corruption scandals.
In addition, the country is among the most affected by the pandemic, with more than 1.5 million confirmed cases and more than 53,400 deaths.
“There is no work, there are no opportunities in the countryside, so we migrate to the city and there are already many people in the city (…) In my opinion, may the godfather of peasants and provincials win,” said Hernaldo Carbajal, who arrived from the the interior of the country to look for work in Lima, the capital.
But, according to the polls, Peruvians do not opt for any of the presidential candidates. The candidate who occupies the first place in voting intention barely exceeds 10% support.
According to the latest polls, six candidates have at least a minimum of possibilities: Yonhy Lescano (Popular Action); Hernando de Soto (Avanza País); Verónika Mendoza (Together for Peru); George Forsyth (National Victory); Keiko Fujimori (Popular Force) and Rafael López Aliaga (Popular Renewal).
Citizens go to the polls after, last November, the political chaos with the dismissal of Martin Vizcarra, for alleged corruption, allowed the country to go through three presidents in the same week. His successor, Manuel Merino, was forced to resign a few days later amid accusations of forming a plot to overthrow Vizcarra and numerous protests. Since then, the nation has been led by the interim president, Francisco Sagasti, while Peru fights against the new coronavirus that hits it hard.
Beyond Peruvians’ indifference to voting, based on predictable low turnout rates, Peruvians are also angry. The protracted public health crisis has exposed long-standing inequities.
Perception towards the political class worsened even more recently when a list, which included former President Martín Vizcarra, revealed that hundreds of wealthy people well connected to public officials secretly received the Covid-19 vaccines, over and above the populations in greater risk or more vulnerable to the virus, such as health workers on the front line against the pandemic.
Bolivia elects governors in second round
The country will live the second round of elections to elect the governors of four of the nine departments that make up the country: La Paz, Chuquisaca, Pando and Tarija.
In the first ballot, none of the candidates from these regions reached the 51% of the votes or 40% and a 10 percentage point advantage over the second candidate, required to win.
The Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), of former president Evo Morales, seeks control of the main governorates that eluded him in the first electoral round.
In the first round, five governors were elected, three of them from the MAS party, so if they win the four in dispute this Sunday, the socialist movement would govern in most of the country, in addition to the Executive currently held by Luis Arce, also member of that political party.
In three of the departments that are in dispute this Sunday, the Socialists will have to face those who were members of their own ranks, but who were expelled.
“There is something very curious because in three of the four departments, the dispute will be between MAS candidates or against dissidents from the ruling party. It will not be an election with candidates from the political opposition. In the case of Tarija it is different, because the MAS is competing against the opposition, “said political scientist Marcelo Arequipa during a conversation with Venezuelan journalist César Miguel Rondón.
The results are expected to be delivered within a maximum period of one week, the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal declared this week, although the organization hopes to deliver them sooner.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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source https://pledgetimes.com/electoral-super-sunday-ecuador-and-peru-elect-president-and-bolivia-will-vote-for-governors/
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