“Unanimously, and on the basis of the report submitted for our examination, we validate the presidential candidacy” of Christian Zurita, “sponsored by the Construye movement”, announced on the evening of Wednesday August 16 the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE) from Ecuador, Diana Atamaint, on the X platform (formerly Twitter). Journalist Christian Zurita is running in the presidential election to be held on Sunday, replacing centrist Fernando Villavicencio, who was assassinated last week at the end of a meeting in Quito.
Before approving the candidacy of Mr. Zurita, 53, the CNE rejected an appeal filed by the left-wing Revolucion Ciudadana (“citizen’s revolution”) party of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) which s opposed the candidacy of the journalist. Citizen Revolution claimed that Mr. Zurita was a member of the center-right Renovacion Total (RETO) party, and therefore could not run as the centrist Construye party.
Mr. Zurita claimed that the signature on a document linking him to RETO was false. The commission agreed with him and accepted his request for “nullity”, Ms. Atamaint told the press. “The objection filed to oppose his nomination was dismissed as the candidate is not affiliated or has joined any political organization. Therefore, his candidacy was approved, after verification of compliance with the conditions set out in the electoral law in force. »
On polling day, however, Mr. Villavicencio’s face will appear on the ballots, instead of Mr. Zurita, because the ballots have already been printed, the CNE said.
The “correism [which] tries again to silence us, confirms its fear of our candidacy”, had declared earlier on X (ex-Twitter) the Construye party.
Before being shot, Mr. Villavicencio came second in voting intentions, with 12.5%, behind the candidate of the camp of ex-president Correa, Luisa Gonzalez (24%), according to the most recent poll. from the Cedatos Institute.
