Ecuador's election build-up marked by shifting alliances, few proposals.
| Autor | Saavedra, Luis Angel |
| Cargo | Essay |
Looming elections in Ecuador promise to be more of a referendum on the outgoing president, the long-serving Rafael Correa, than a contest of ideas. Opponents have formed inconceivable alliances for the sole purpose of defeating Correa's party, Alianza PAIS (PAIS Alliance, AP), leaving aside any real analysis of the country's social and economic issues. And none of the candidates has offered even the slightest indication of how he or she might tackle Ecuador's aggressive foreign debt, rising unemployment figures, fiscal revenue shortfall, and other pressing problems.
Free-market conservatives talking about respect for indigenous rights and former guerrillas emphasizing the importance of adapting to the modern market are just some of the contradictions on display in this campaign season, which kicked off well in advance of the presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in February 2017.
Juan Cuvi, a former member of the subversive Alfaro Vive Carajo movement, likens the political right's approach in this campaign to how a large truck handles a tight turn. "A tractor-trailer, when it needs to turn right on a narrow road, opens as much as it can to the left and swings right without leaving space for anyone on the corners to pass," he says in reference to how conservatives like presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso, bent on boosting their following, have pandered to the left. The rightist Partido Social Cristiano (Social Christian Party, PSC) has also tried to woo left-wing support, in its case by calling for a non-ideological alliance to reconstruct the country's institutional structure.
Lasso is a neo-liberal (pro-market) banker who heads the Creando Oportunidades (Creating Opportunities, CREO) party. He is polling in second place behind AP candidate Lenin Moreno. Correa, who has been in power since 2007, opted against seeking reelection.
Promises, promises
Lasso spent the past several years raising his profile by appearing in ads for Banco Guayaquil, a bank he helped found. And in an attempt to further broaden his base of support, he has reached out on various occasions to indigenous leaders, promising to help them build a plurinational state as spelled out in the Constitution of 2008, to respect the opinions of indigenous communities regarding extractive projects, and to support the establishment of a separate legal system for indigenous people (NotiSur, July 15, 2016). He also promises not to expand oil extraction and thus protect...
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