2023-08-17 11:50:41
The Ecuadorian presidential soap opera continues. The candidate Fernando Villavicencio, shot dead a week ago as he left the sports hall at the end of a meeting in Quito, will be replaced. The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador unanimously approved Wednesday evening the candidacy of Christian Zurita, 53 years old and also a journalist.
The head of the CNE, Diana Atamaint, affirmed that “unanimously, and on the basis of the report submitted for our examination, we validate the presidential candidacy” of Zurita, “sponsored by the Construye movement”, the centrist party of Villavicencio. This party had appointed its replacement on 14 August. Even before his candidacy was officially validated, Christian Zurita had already made it known that he intended to fully follow the political project of his late friend.
Before giving the green light to this candidacy, the CNE also rejected an appeal filed by the Revolucio Ciudadana party (in French, “Citizen’s Revolution), socialist tendency, of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) which opposed the candidacy of the journalist. This party pointed out that Zurita was a member of the Renovacion Total (in French, “Total Renovation”) party. Therefore, he could not present himself with the label of another party.
In response, the Construye party said on X that “Correism is again trying to silence us, confirms its fear of our candidacy”.
As for Zurita, he claimed that the signature on a document linking him to Renovacion Total was false. The National Electoral Council agreed with him. “The objection filed to oppose his nomination was rejected because the candidate is not affiliated or has joined any political organization. Therefore, his candidacy was approved, after verification of compliance with the conditions set out in the electoral law in force,” explained Atamaint.
As a reminder, before being shot, the centrist candidate came in second place in terms of voting intentions, with 12.5%, behind the candidate from the camp of ex-president Correa, Luisa Gonzalez (24%), according to the poll. the most recent from the Cedatos Institute.
The first round is on Sunday. But Colombian voters won’t see Zurita’s face on the ballots. Indeed, they have already been printed. Thus, if they want to vote for the new centrist candidate, they will have to take the ballots bearing the face of Villavicencio.
#Ecuador #assassinated #presidential #candidate #replaced