Ecuador Votes!

My first glimpse of Ecuadorian politics came through the cynical lens of my politics professor. In an introductory talk he gave during our orientation week we were introduced to the main political contenders and told why ultimately each was a flawed candidate. Quite a base to build on indeed! Eternal optimist that I am I decided to do a little more searching. This being an election year in Ecuador there was potential for anything, not the least being a coup or some sort of civil unrest. One thing’s for sure, you can never accuse Ecuadorian politics of being boring.

Ecuador is a diverse country that has produced a wide variety of candidates from each of Ecuador’s three regions: the east Amazon, the central highlands, and the western coast. From the beginning it was clear from the ads on television, the posters plastered around town, and from my conversations with people that there were four main candidates for president. This is despite the fact that 17 contenders had put their hats into the ring for this year’s presidential contest.

The first candidate for president to appear was Cynthia Viteri, candidate for the Social Christian party. As my cynical professor pointed out, the Social Christian party is neither social, nor Christian. Certainly after having seen her ads and what she said during the debates I had a very hard time pinning down what exactly she was and what she stood for. On all her posters she wears an Ecuadorian bracelet with her hand over her heart and the slogan, “Yes, Ecuador can do it.”(Ecuador, si se puede) Despite the uplifting feeling of that slogan, what does it actually mean? As far as I can tell she supports increased health and education spending and more employment. Unfortunately that line is a standard for everyone who wants to mount a half serious presidential campaign and does nothing to distinguish her at all. It would seem that Cynthia’s election as the Social Christian candidate was more a choice of style than substance. As intelligent as she may seem, a beautiful, fair skinned, blonde haired woman as candidate is clearly a play to the most basic of instincts of every Ecuadorian male.

A more reasonable choice from the top four is Leon Roldos, representative from Izquerda Democratica (Democratic Left). The conscious feeling from my family and others was that a vote for Roldos was a vote for stability. If you liked the status quo and didn’t want radical change in Ecuador in anyway, Roldos was your man. His campaign has focused mostly on delivering a government that is free of corruption and strong on ethics. With regards to trade he supports putting the proposed free trade agreement with the US to a national referendum. Roldos’ downside is his complete and utter lack of charisma or facial expression. During the televised debates he would speak in almost a mumble (as a non native Spanish speaker I had the most trouble understanding him) while chopping his left hand up and down in rhythm to what he said. His other hand he kept glued to his side, so much so that I actually became concerned that it might be paralyzed. Halfway through he then switched to right hand movements which then had me concerned about his left hand!

A more radical front-runner is the independent candidate, economist Rafael Correa. He exudes charisma like Hugo Chavez and is backed by a strong core of supporters and a slick media campaign. In contrast to Cynthia however, you most definitely know who he is and for what he stands. His platform is based on two main ideas. First is constitutional reform. He supports disbanding congress and launching a citizen’s assembly to draft a new form of government for Ecuador. Second, he is against the proposed free trade agreement with the United States and very much in favour of economic nationalism. In the last government he, as Minister of the Economy, forcibly renegotiated Ecuador’s contracts with foreign oil companies to increase Ecuador’s share from 20 to 40% of all oil revenues. He also redirected oil revenues away from the 75% that was supposed to go towards paying off the debt as stipulated by the World Bank. As result the World Bank threatened to retract 400 million dollars in loans unless he was removed from office, which of course he quickly was. He enters the race with this baggage but also with the precedent that he will act on his convictions.

Finally we the last of the front runners, if he even can be considered a legitimate candidate: Alvaro Noboa running for PRIAN. I struggle for words to describe him but I think I can settle on these: I’ve finally found someone with more money and less intelligence than George W. Bush. He is by far the most ignorant, incompetent and ludicrous buffoon to ever enter politics. In the debates and in interviews on television several reporters and commentators have had to forcible suppress their smiles and laughter when he attempts to answer their questions. The way he erratically waves his arms in the air and shrieks when he speaks makes him seem more like some sort of fiendish goblin than a human being. One of my professors went so far as to suggest he could actually be, “mentally deficient.” Bush claims he speaks regularly with God, Noboa has publicly tried to perform faith healings while on the campaign trail. He would probably be completely ignored as a candidate except for the fact that he is extremely rich; his family collectively controls about 5% of Ecuador’s total GDP.

With this as the background Ecuador lurched it’s way into election day on Sunday October 15th. At the polling station in Sangolqui everything seemed normal, except of course for the typical Ecuadorian idiosyncrasies. Ecuador has a no drinking law on election weekend, as apparently in previous years many have showed up totally plastered to vote. Along with the voters there were the ice cream, hot dog, and other food vendors that you find at any event. Men and women had to vote at separate voting booths, each of which was protected by an army officer in full fatigues and caring an automatic rifle. Circling in the background were medics from the Red Cross, just in case.

After visiting the polling station with my host family I returned home to watch the proceedings on television. The main focus during the day was the voting by each of the main candidates. Cynthia, all smiles as usual, proudly proclaimed she was voting for her list of senators, Correa, moved through the crowd at his booth with his usual charisma. At Noboa’s booth it was pure pandemonium. It was not clear what the problem was but he needed the protection of his personal bodyguards to even get to the booth. Once there he made a show of each ballot he marked, and then, with his trophy wife in hand, escaped through a side passage.

With voting finished and the polls closed, the entire country then anticipated the first results, which would be the exit polls that would come out shortly after 5:00 p.m. Ecuador’s system resembles somewhat that of the United States. They elect a provincial council, a national congress, and a president with executive powers. This is combined with a run off system; the top two candidates in the first round then face off against each other in an additional month of campaigning. All throughout the campaign people had been talking about a Roldos-Correra runoff, although at the end some had been talking about the slight possibility of a Noboa-Correa contest. The shock came with the release of the first exit polls. Noboa was in first with 28.2% followed by Correa one percent behind. The sense of shock was palpable. Responding to these shocks the national television networks rushed to get Noboa on their programs. His incompetence did not disappoint. Pumped up by his apparent victory his hand movements were even more wild, his shrieks several tones higher, and his speech even more incomprehensible. To top it off his cell phone went off in the middle of the interview! I can’t even fathom who would want or need to call him at that point.

Later in the night as the official results came in it was apparent that Noboa’s lead was even greater. While polls done the day before the election had showed Correa in the high 20’s and Noboa in the low 20’s the actual results were the exact opposite. Although there was still 27% of people who were undecided the day before, the fact that things had changed that much seemed suspect at least. The Correa supporters that I watched the results with were convinced it was fraud. They claimed that Noboa had paid people $40 each to vote for him. After seeing the results I found this not hard to believe. Noboa received 40% of the vote in the coastal region where he owns huge tracts of banana plantations. How easy would it have been for him to pay all his workers a little extra to vote for him?

Partisan bickering aside, there was one more election night fact that stuck in my mind.
Although all Ecuadorians have to vote, over 500,000 of them chose to leave their ballot blank or spoil their ballot. This is perhaps the true message of the election: some are so sick of the process that they won’t vote for anyone.