Without days for truce, Ecuador has launched the campaign that will decide who will govern the second part of the current legislature to replace President Guillermo Lasso for 18 months. And he has done it with a overtaking expected in the polls: the moderate Daniel Noboa has overtaken Correísta Luisa González in citizen preferences, despite the fact that she had prevailed in the first electoral round with 33.61% of support, ten points ahead of her rival.
According to the measurement of the pollster Comunicaliza, Noboa obtains the support of 54.87% of Ecuadorians, compared to 45.13% of the standard bearer of the Citizen Revolution. Many of the rivals of both contenders, including the Social Christian Party (PSC) and its candidate, the populist Jan Topic, have chosen to support the leader of the National Democratic Action alliance (ADN).
The mess has caused the immediate turnaround of the campaign directed from abroad by the former president. Rafael Correa, in an attempt to refresh former congresswoman González, especially on social networks. But in the middle of the electoral marathon, González tried to be more papist than the pope of the citizen revolution, by invoking Venezuela and the Bolivarian revolution in comparison with today’s Ecuador. “Venezuela has better living conditions than Ecuador now. Yes, totally, and they are running (Venezuelan emigrants) back to Venezuela, because it is safer than Ecuador. “Venezuelans are terrified of Ecuador,” the candidate told a local radio station.
Correa is not only a historical ally of the Bolivarian revolution, he also serves as a special advisor to Nicolás Maduro. Several members of his former ministerial team have participated in the neoliberal turn of the Venezuelan economy, which has de facto adapted the dollar as the currency of common use. At the moment, the oil-producing country once again leads the worst economic records in the region, with year-on-year inflation exceeding 420%.
“These are regrettable statements. We know where the candidate’s demagoguery and ideological affinity with Maduro come from, but saying that is even insulting. It is not true,” Venezuelan lawyer Aníbal Rivero, who is part of pro groups, responded to EL MUNDO. emigrants.