A Bath of Humility for the official Alianza Pais

ECUADOR - In Brief 24 Feb 2014 by Magdalena Barreiro

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Last Sunday 23d, Ecuadorians went to the polls for the 10th time since 2007 to elect sectional authorities. Every time, the President and his movement emerged victorious from these elections and public consultations. However, this last time is quite different. Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca and 16 other capitals of province elected representatives from the opposition as their mayors. In fact, Pais wins only five out of the 24 major cities for this dignity and his allies from Avanza elect mayor in just three other ones. Quito elected Mauricio Rodas from SUMA with 58% of votes against 38% for Augusto Barrera the current mayor from Alianza Pais while Guayaquil re-elected Jaime Nebot from Madera de Guerrero with 60% of total votes and Cuenca elected Marcelo Cabrera also from the opposition with around 10% of votes above those from the candidate of Alianza Pais. General results for the election of the Provincial Authority (Prefecto Provincial), who is politically less influential than the mayor, are a bit better for the official party. Alianza Pais captures nine out of the 24 provinces but only five from the largest ones. In fact, from the four main provinces (Pichincha, Guayas, Azuay and Manabi), AP loses Guayas and Azuay. President Correa accepted this setback and attributed it possibly to a sectarian approach from his party and to the “dirty campaign” carried out by his opponents. This last argument is very difficult to accept given the enormous marketing campaign displayed by all public entities in favor of the official candidates.