Popular and leftist bloc wins first round of elections in Ecuador

<American Insurgency #6 (08/02/2021)> The efforts of the ruling class — supported by the electoral machines and the mainstream media — failed to take the two candidates from the capitalists (Arauz and Lasso) to the second round. More than 70% of Ecuadorians reject Rafael Correa’s candidate and his demagogic traps.

The social forces that led the great popular uprising of October 2019 in Ecuador are euphoric with the electoral results of last February 7. The candidate of the bloc made up of hundreds of social organizations and the parties Pachakutik and Popular Unit, Yaku Perez, obtained almost two million votes and will run for the second round with the candidate of the Democratic Center, Andrés Arauz, on April 11.

The chances of victory for the candidate of the popular bloc are really exceptional, since the forces directed from abroad by ex-president Rafael Correa — who is fleeing a prison sentence for corruption in Belgium — suffer great wear and are rejected by the vast majority of Ecuador’s population.

The results of the last day of February 7 confirm the defeat of Correísmo. Arauz’s vote is less than the vote of the correct candidate elected in 2017, the current president Lenin Moreno, representing a decrease in electoral representation in less than 4 years. The intention of the correists parties to win the elections in the first round turned into great frustration.

This defeat was even more evident as Rafael Correa started accusing the National Electoral Council of error in counting the votes for allegedly taking votes from the banker candidate, Guillermo Lasso. The supporters of the main correspondent referees for Lasso, and not Yaku, to pass to the second round became even a laughing matter in the country.

The defeat of Guillermo Lasso’s right-wing candidate for the CREO-PSC parties was also reflected in the figures. The figure of 19.55% is much lower than that reached by that same candidate in 2017, when these forces had together reached 45% of the votes.

The social, economic and health crisis that Ecuador is experiencing has generated a wave of indignation and rejection against the Lenin Moreno government, which is expressed in the non-acceptance of the parties that supported the government’s legislative measures. The poor management of the health crisis in a large city governed by right-wing parties like Guayaquil (Guayas province) took the toll in these elections.

The strengthening of the Popular Block through the struggle

There is a direct link between the results of February 7 and the mass struggle that occurred in October 2019. It is possible to say that there was a recovery in a sector of the organized popular movement that expressed itself in October and today presents the country with an option to a government that differs from the capitalist developmentalist project of correspondence and neoliberalism of the old oligarchy.

Capitalists continue to seek ways to prevent this popular option from advancing to the second round. The fraudulent handling in the National Electoral Council remains, and was already felt even in the 2017 election. The Christian Social Party, for example, through its employees, keeps control of the computer system and even published numbers of the quick count different from those that were published by the president of the council.

It is for this reason that the revolutionary organizations of Ecuador have called for popular mobilizations in defense of the vote in front of the counting places. As always, only popular pressure and mobilization can prevent fraud and guarantee Yaku’s presence in the second round.

The possibility of victory for a truly left-wing candidate in a South American country is fraught with symbolism, since, for the first time, it will be possible to break the vicious circle of alternation between openly neoliberal forces and so-called progressive forces, but who practice similar politics.

The rupture program and speech defended by Yaku Pérez, his charisma, coherence and militant history, made this position seen by the population as an option for change. This was a trend that consolidated, more and more, until fighting for a place in the second round.

Yaku Perez represents the sectors of the left, of the popular organizations that Rafael Correa has made the target of his repressive policy, organizations that he criminalized, stigmatized and tried to eliminate. Today, these sectors of the left come together to defeat Correa’s pupped, Andrez Arauz.