Ballot of Andean parliamentarians is not printed and their election will be left for a new date
29 January 2021
CE Noticias Financieras
NFINCE
The National Electoral Council (CNE) could be forced to make a new call for Ecuadorians to go to the polls to elect Andean parliamentarians.
The deadlines are not sufficient to incorporate this fifth ballot in the elections of this 7 February, in which presidential binomial, national, provincial and foreign assembly will be chosen, as recorded in the official call for the ballot boxes that took place on October 7, 2020.
Yesterday, Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrín confirmed that the Military Geographical Institute (IGM) will not be able to print the ballot with candidates for the Andean Parliament, as election day will be held within ten days.
“It will definitely go in the second round, if it exists. But it is postponed (printing), it will not take place on this first pass,” the secretary of state said at a press conference.
The electoral advisor Luis Verdesoto also acknowledged that a new election, which he called “ad-hoc”, should be convened only to elect this position.
However, it will be contingent on a second electoral round to define President and Vice-President of the Republic, scheduled for 11 April; or otherwise, that in the first round of February 7, the winner of the elections will be defined. And, the CNE must approve a new timetable.
For Verdesoto, the deadlines are not the problem, but “locating the legal figures so that there is no problem regarding the legitimacy of the election. It will undergo all checks and reviews,” he said, in a radio interview.
The impossibility of the Andean parliamentarians being elected in the first round is due to the Council’s conflict with the Social Justice movement.
On 15 January last, the Electoral Litigation Tribunal (ECA) ordered the CNE to “guarantee” the participation of its candidates for this dignity.
On 20 January, the Council gave it a one-day deadline for registration, but Social Justice appealed for more days, appealing to “equal conditions”.
But the counselors denied this request, considering the closeness of the election.
Until midnight yesterday, Social Justice could appeal to the ECA. Doing so will govern new deadlines for a failure that are up to 21 days.
However, until the close of this edition it was not observed that they entered writings on the Court’s web portal.
The president, Diana Atamaint, said last Monday that they expect to have an ECA certification today; and, if no resources are filed, they will send the ballot to the qualified candidates.
This is in the midst of the decision to initiate the distribution of electoral packages of the other dignities, to the three constituencies abroad and to cities of Ecuador that are difficult to access, such as the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands.
For the analyst, Esteban Ron, the CNE’s exit is to approve a re-call, in which he must “modify” and leave the call to the ballot boxes about this dignity, arguing the impossibility of printing the ballots.
This will mean the validity of a new electoral calendar for political organizations to re-enroll candidates and the CNE to qualify them.
Why? “Because by leaving a part of the resolution without effect and making a call, you must start the process from scratch.”
And, you will need to approve a budget, define the Electoral Promotion Fund (EPE) and deadlines for the election campaign.
Ron considered that by reconvoting, the CNE could match the date of the election with the secondreturn, or else a different date.
In its view, this will have sanctioning effects on directors in the future.
Once the electoral process is over, the State Contraloy could initiate a special review of how the elections were held, in addition to possible political prosecutions by the National Assembly. (I)
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