Ecuador Election Mayhem

Here in Ecuador we are in the final stretch of the Primary Election. Shall we say that Ecuador’s electoral process is… robust?

Sunday is the actual vote. The candidates for the thirteen or so political parties have been busily promising mountains of government spending and vast reaches of windfalls to anyone and everyone who will listen. Of course, there is absolutely no mention as to how anyone will pay for these millions of largesse.

Talking to my English students, we discussed the differences in Ecuador and USA elections. I noted that candidates in the US could never do what Ecuadorian politicians do here. They could never call another candidate a fascist, or a communist, or a whore. The US candidate would be ostracized and their election hopes crushed.

Also, when US candidates talk of offering new programs, they are pretty much forced by the other candidates and the media to explain how they’ll pay for their new programs. What will new taxes be like? If the proposed spending and funding doesn’t make sense, the politician will be ridiculed and could never win.

The Ecuadorians were puzzled by this. How is it possible you must require politicians to defend the realism of their campaign promises? In Ecuador, it is important that politicians promise lots of spending to mollify the special interest groups, especially the poor. No politician says how they would finance such spending.

I said that Western politicians are expected to do this by the voters and the media. If the politicians don’t explain how they’ll pay for something, they just aren’t taken seriously.

A completely new and radical concept for Ecuadorian politics. It’ll never happen here.

The election takes on many unique turns due to the interesting Ecuadorian election laws. First, no opinion polls are allowed to be disseminated within twenty days of the election. People do them, of course, they are just not allowed to publish them in Ecuador. So they are published outside the country and filter into the country via the Internet and word-of-mouth.

Then there can be no active electioneering within 72 hours of the election. So Thursday is the big blow out day. All day Thursday, vast caravans of political supporters in cars and rented buses parade up and down the streets, beating drums and honking horns, waving flags and signs extolling the virtues of their candidates. Their ranks are swelled with “volunteers.” They have been promised jobs if the candidate wins. Of course, there are always more volunteers than available jobs… but what does that matter?

So all the way to midnight these vast parades of thousands intertwine throughout the city. Sometimes they meet. When they meet fights break out. And with the cacophony of blasting fireworks, honking horns, shouts and screams, the demons of Ecuadorian politics is played out.

Then from Friday to Saturday it is peace. By law no alcohol may be sold from Friday until the close of elections, so that everyone can be sober and thoughtful to do their civic duty. Sunday are the elections. Now, the elections are also covered by some interesting rules. In Ecuador, every citizen is REQUIRED to vote. This is tied to some hefty fines if a citizen does not vote. Voting in Ecuador is not considered a right, it is a responsibility.

Also, since there are so many presidential candidates the electioning gets complicated too. If the winner of the election gets more than 50% of the vote, they win outright and become President. Also, if they get 40% of the vote and they are ahead of their closest rival by at least 10%, then they win (Our hero gets 41% and the next candidate gets less than 31%).

Otherwise, there is a runoff in November with the top two candidates.

In two days, we’ll see what holds for the future of Ecuador.