The Ecuadorian president, Guillermo Lasso, led the meeting held on Friday at the Carondelet Palace, headquarters of the Executive, where the authorities reiterated that 53,707 police officers and 42,296 military personnel will provide protection to the population during voting day.

On the Presidency’s social network, Lasso asked the Armed Forces and the National Police to “redouble their efforts and ensure a peaceful election day, for the good of democracy and the Ecuadorians who will express themselves this Sunday with their vote.”

According to the Government, also on Sunday more than nine thousand officials from the Ministry of Health network, the Risk Management Secretariat and the Integrated Security Service will be active to respond to any emergency.

More than 13.4 million Ecuadorians are called to decide the future of the country through the polls in a process that takes place in the midst of the greatest wave of insecurity in the country and that will again be carried out under a state of exception.

In addition to the increase in criminal acts, the country is suffering an escalation in political violence, with 88 cases of attacks between 2022 and 2023 on officials, candidates or their relatives, making these the most violent elections in the history of Ecuador.

Luisa González, from the left-wing Citizen Revolution movement, and Daniel Noboa, from the right-wing National Democratic Action alliance, will face each other on the ballot.

For the sociologist and communicator, Irene León, the electoral moment is presented as a path of no return, since the geopolitical, socioeconomic and strategic commitments, part of the neoliberal agenda are at stake, against which the Citizen Revolution puts a sovereignty project first and common good.

ef/oda/avr