2023-08-13 22:55:46
Seven days before the Ecuadorian presidential election, a new candidate has just appeared. After the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, the presidential candidate assassinated on Wednesday, Construye, his political party, appointed journalist Christian Zurita, 53, on Sunday to represent him in the election scheduled for August 20.
On Saturday, this party had initially chosen the environmentalist Andrea González, who was running for vice-president alongside Fernando Villavicencio, but he reconsidered his decision, for fear that the electoral rules would invalidate his candidacy. There is uncertainty over whether she could move from running for vice president to contender for the top job. When in doubt, and for lack of a response from the National Electoral Council (CNE) within the time limit, he chose to present Christian Zurita. The party raised the possibility of Andrea González appearing on the ballot as a candidate for vice president.
An “integral follow-up” of Villavicencio’s political project
Christian Zurita, whose candidacy has not yet been validated by the CNE, indicated that he would fully follow his friend’s political project. Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old journalist on a crusade against corruption in his country, was in second place in the polls on the presidential voting intentions, when he was shot dead as he left an electoral meeting in the capital, Quito.
Most of Ecuador has since been under a state of emergency, and President Guillermo Lasso has blamed organized crime for the killing. Six Colombians were arrested as part of the investigation, and one was killed shortly after the attack by the candidate’s bodyguards.
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