Explainer: Who's Who in Ecuador's 2023 Presidential Election?
Explainer: Who's Who in Ecuador's 2023 Presidential Election?
Despite the tragic assassination of one candidate, voters will still go to the polls on August 20 to pick a president and members of the National Assembly.
What was already an extraordinary electoral process in Ecuador turned tragic on August 9 when a presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, was assassinated leaving a campaign event in Quito. President Guillermo Lasso has declared a 60-day state of emergency and three days of mourning.
Villavicencio, a political activist, investigative journalist, and columnist, was one of eight candidates running to replace Lasso in a snap election. Ecuadorans weren’t supposed to pick their president until 2025. But in May, Lasso, facing an impeachment threat, used an unprecedented constitutional measure known as the “crossed death.” In doing so, the president dissolved the National Assembly and triggered new elections, set for August 20, to pick a new head of state and the unicameral legislature’s 137 seats.
Crime and violence have been major focuses in the campaign so far—as Ecuador experiences a wave of crime over the past years. The spike was one of the sources of Lasso’s low popularity that led to this political crisis. Villavicencio had been outspoken about the threat the violence posed to Ecuador, calling the country a “narco state” and laying out a plan to target the kingpins of gangs and mafias.
Despite Villavicencio’s assassination, the election will proceed on August 20, though at least three presidential contenders have suspended campaigning. Lasso has promised to use the military to guarantee security at polling sites.
For Ecuador’s 13.5 million voters, casting a ballot on election day remains mandatory. Average turnout is 74 percent and hit 81 percent in 2021’s first-round presidential election. If no contender receives more than 50 percent of the vote—or 40 percent with a 10-point lead—a runoff will take place on October 15. The winners will govern until May 2025, when Lasso’s term was meant to end.
Who are the favorites among the candidates running to replace Lasso? With few polls, it’s difficult to conclude. But, with such a short campaign season, big names have the advantage, Carmen Sánchez-Laulhé told Latin America in Focus, with favorites including former legislator Luisa González and businessman Jan Topic.
Learn more about these contenders, as well as information about Villavicencio.
This article was originally published on June 22, 2023, and has since been updated.
Atrevia’s Carmen Sánchez-Laulhé explains what’s next for President Guillermo Lasso and the National Assembly as an unprecedented move sparks new elections.
Fernando Villavicencio, 59, was slain on August 9, shortly after a campaign event in Quito. The investigation into the incident is ongoing but six foreign nationals had been been arrested as of August 10. Days before his killing, Villavicencio had spoken out against direct threats to his life he had received from organized crime groups—particularly Los Choneros, a wing of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. Questions remain about the quality of Villavicencio’s security detail.
Villavicencio built his reputation by denouncing corruption in Correa’s government involving PetroEcuador, where he was once a union leader. In 2014, Villavicencio was arrested for alleged defamation against the then-president. He took refuge in the Ecuadoran Amazon and was later exiled for three years in Peru, returning to Ecuador once Lenín Moreno took power.
Taking the presidential candidate’s place on the Construye party ticket is investigative journalist Christian Zurita, who also has a history of anti-corruption reporting. And Zurita has a turbulent history with Correa as well; the former president once sued the journalist over a book he authored about the Correa’s brother.
Villavicencio’s Construye party chose Zurita on August 13, four days after the candidate’s murder and six days before the election. On that day, Zurita addressed the press conference wearing a bulletproof vest. His campaign involves anti-crime measures that he helped Villavicencio author, including bolstering the police and better funding state intelligence and social programs.
Late on August 15, Correa’s party Citizen Revolution filed an objection to Zurita’s candidacy, which could put his role in jeopardy as the national electoral council still needs to approve it. Construye has called the objection “baseless.”
Villavicencio’s running mate, Andrea González, will remain on the ticket as the vice presidential candidate.
An ex-legislator, Armijos, 47, served as the president of the National Council of Parochial Governments between 2014 and 2019, and he faced a scandal over irregularities in handling of the government agency’s funds. Armijos was an assembly member for Union of Hope, Correa’s coalition that includes his party Citizen Revolution. He was considered a strong name to be the coalition’s presidential nominee in 2021. But this cycle, he will represent the Friend movement. Armijos is left-leaning.
The Esmeraldas native will be running alongside journalist Linda Romero, who considers herself center-left.
Representing Correa’s party, Luisa González, 45, of the Citizen Revolution (RC) is the only woman running in this contest. She was a legislator for Manabí province until the dissolution of the National Assembly in May. González is running on a platform to slash inequality, increase tourism, and—like many other candidates—tackle the country’s violent crime problem.
A lawyer, González served as labor minister and in various roles in Correa’s government between 2016 and 2017. A socially conservative leftist, González voted against allowing abortion in cases of rape in 2022.
A plan of Correa—and by extension of González—is to nullify a 2018 referendum that prevents him for running again. Correa, who was sentenced in absentia in 2020 to eight years prison for breaking campaign finance laws, hopes to return from exile in Belgium to reenter Ecuador’s political scene, and this could set the scene for his candidacy in 2025.
RC originally selected former Vice President Jorge Glas as its nominee but he rejected the offer.
González’s running mate is Andrés Arauz, a 38-year-old economist who narrowly lost to Lasso in the 2021 presidential runoff despite winning the first round.
Businessman and engineer Xavier Hervas, 50, of the Challenge coalition exceeded expectations in Ecuador’s 2021 election when he finished fourth, representing the Democratic Left. His popular TikTok account and views in favor of abortion, same-sex marriage, and marijuana may have helped him appeal to youth.
In the second round, Hervas endorsed Lasso. Since then, their relationship has soured. In 2022, Lasso alleged that Hervas asked to be exempt from paying taxes in exchange for a vote supporting a investment attraction law. Hervas denies the claim.
Hervas says he would seek to tackle security, infrastructure, and health by strengthening the security forces, rehabilitating bridges and schools, and purchasing more medical equipment.
The Guayaquil native’s running mate is Luz Marina Vega, an engineer.
AS/COA covered votes in the Americas, from presidential elections to referendums.
The son of five-time presidential candidate Álvaro Noboa and of ex-legislator Anabella Azín, Daniel Noboa Azín, 35, is a businessman who long worked in the family internet service firm. From Guayaquil he also an assembly member, representing the coastal Santa Elena province.
His platform includes reforming transit, igniting youth entrepreneurship, and reactivating economies of the poorer coastal provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas. Noboa Azín was one of seven legislators who in September 2022 visited Moscow to strengthen relations with Russia, paying for everyone’s trip.
He has four degrees from various universities in the United States, and he will be representing an alliance he created: National Democratic Action. His vice-presidential candidate is Verónica Abad, a businesswoman who ran for mayor of Cuenca in 2022.
Environmentalist and indigenous rights activist Yaku Pérez, 54, ran in the 2021 presidential election, and outperformed expectations. Representing the Pachakutik party, he earned 19 percent of the vote in the first round, barely missing the runoff. Pérez resigned from Pachakutik in 2021, following its decision to align itself with Lasso’s CREO party. This time he’ll be running with the support of a broader front known as Of Course We Can made up of three left-wing political parties: Popular Unity, Ecuadoran Socialist Party, and Democracy Yes.
Pérez served as prefect of Azuay province until 2021, a leader of a Kichwa nationalities group in the 2010s, and was a vocal critic of Correa during the president’s term.
Pérez has been arrested various times and charged with terrorism for his fight for water rights. However, he’s said that, while he believes oil and mining bring more negatives than positives, he will also honor existing contracts. He has also promised to honor Ecuador’s $46 billion foreign debt.
Pérez is ethnically Cañari. His running mate will be Nory Pinela, an academic and vice-rector of Ecotec University from Guayaquil.
Ecuador’s youngest-ever vice president, Otto Sonnenholzner, who is now 40, served during Moreno’s term from 2018 to 2020. He is a Harvard-education economist and radio broadcaster.
Security is a focus for Sonnenholzner. His fourfold plan includes prison reform, arms intelligence, support for the public servants, and protection for those enforcing justice. He also touts technology as key in the fight against crime.
Sonnenholzner says he plans to reenergize public investment and increase funding for the country’s health and education systems. He’ll be representing Let’s Act, a coalition that includes Advance, a social-democratic party, and the Suma party.
His running mate will be UN environmentalist Érika Paredes.
Facing impeachment, the Ecuadoran president used an unprecedented measure that sparks new elections. Get a timeline of the steps that led to this point.
Wealthy business leader Jan Topic has sought to position himself as an “apolitical” outsider transcending classifications of left, right, or center.
Topic is a 40-year-old economist from Guayaquil who says he will to tackle Ecuador’s unprecedented crime wave by mirroring the mano dura tactics of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele. A French citizen and a self-proclaimed security expert, Topic has fought with the French Foreign Legion in South Africa, Syria, and Ukraine, and he has used that image to bolster his anti-crime credentials. He soared in the polls following Villavicencio’s assassination. He studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania and London School of Economics.
He’ll be representing the Country Without Fear Coalition made up of the Social Christian Party, Patriotic Society, and Democratic Center. His running mate is lawyer Diana Jácome, a lawyer.
