Ecuador’s polling stations opened their doors this Sunday to vote on the battery of constitutional amendments promoted by the president, Guillermo Lasso, in a plebiscite also understood as a popular thermometer on his work at the helm of the country.
Ecuador is called to elect 5,600 positions at local level, where the ruling party will compete with candidates loyal to former president Rafael Correa, still a popular figure in the South American country despite his residence outside the country and several open cases. The Council of Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) will also be renewed.
The president of the CNE, Diana Atamaint, has inaugurated a vote in which 13 million Ecuadorians in national territory, plus another 400,000 abroad, are authorized to cast their ballot.
President Lasso also participated in the inauguration of the elections, overshadowed in the last hours by the murder of Omar Menéndez, candidate to the mayoralty of Puerto López, in a shooting attack which also cost the life of a 16 year old minor, hit by the shots which killed the member of the «correista» Revolución Ciudadana.
«Regardless of any circumstance, I will always be on the side of the defense of life. I express my condolences to his relatives and also to the political party he represented in Puerto López», lamented the president in statements reported by ‘El Universo’.
For his part, former president Rafael Correa, resident in Belgium and one of the main opposition leaders, has lamented the murder of Menéndez, linking it indirectly to the mismanagement of the current authorities. «It really is a nightmare what is happening in Ecuador. What did they do to you Patria!» he lamented on Twitter.
LASSO VOTES Regarding the referendum, Lasso expects to assume «with maturity the results» for «love of country». «No one has the right to disrespect democracy. No one has the right to disregard the voice of the people,» the president has made known.
Hours after these first messages, he has shared on his social networks images of his own vote. «I fulfilled my civic and democratic duty to vote positively for the country,» the president has highlighted in his Twitter account.
Lasso has also called for participation, defending the importance of this multiple election day. «Ecuadorians, exercise your right to vote for the security and welfare of Ecuador,» he urged.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
