An official ceremony at the headquarters of the National Electoral Council (CNE) in Quito, led by electoral and government authorities and under a strict security scheme, inaugurated the voting day.
In the event before ministers, the police and military high command, as well as observers, among other guests, Diana Atamaint, head of the CNE, said that voting should be a democratic message of unity and hope to face the violence that stalks the country, .
Violence will not stop us, because we all defend peace and democracy, said the official, who highlighted the accompaniment of 53 thousand police officers and 43 thousand members of the Armed Forces, in order to have a safe voting.
She also pointed out that they are accompanied by 2,366 observers, 2126 national and 240 international, “witnesses of the transparency of all the phases of the process”.
The Ecuadorian President, Guillermo Lasso, acknowledged the CNE and the Armed Forces for making this electoral process materialize in only three months, after decreeing the cross death last May.
The President welcomed the observers, because their presence offers guarantees in a complex and hopeful context, where the decision of the future will be made by the citizens.
Fernando Muñoz, president of the Electoral Contentious Tribunal, also intervened in the ceremony and declared that it is time to consolidate a democratic culture in all social sectors in order to generate confidence towards the institutions and to have fully legitimized governors.
The elections are scheduled until 17:00, local time, when all polling stations will close and the scrutiny will begin.
According to the authorities, the first data will be available 90 minutes after the beginning of the count.
Ecuador reached this process after President Lasso decreed last May the cross death, constitutional mechanism through which he dissolved the parliament in the middle of an impeachment process against him, and which brought forward the end of his mandate and called for early general elections.
For this reason, those elected in these atypical elections -both president and legislators- will only be in office until May 2025, to complete the current term of office.
At the same time, the elections is taking place in the middle of the biggest wave of insecurity in the country, which have cost the life of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, last August 9, when hired assassins shot him to death as he was leaving a meeting.
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