Second electoral round in Ecuador: Irreconcilable options
by Nidia Diaz
With results that have been questioned in the streets with demonstrations outside the Supreme Electoral Court, Ecuador will have to wait until November 26 to select the new occupant of the Carondet Palace from between multimillionaire and Messianic Alvaro Noboa – first in the presidential race with 26.6% of the votes – and the Alianza País candidate, economist Rafael Correa, the depository of 22.51% of the votes, given that neither of them reached the necessary majority in the first round of the presidential elections on October 15.
It is not often that the polls represent two projects not only well defined but totally opposed and irreconcilable: that of Correa and Alianza País which promotes social aspects and an independent anti-neoliberal road; and that of Noboa who claims to have been elected by God to convert poor Ecuadorians – 60% of the population – into middle-class ones on the basis of a program to boost speculative foreign investment, free trade and the market, and an extension of the repudiated agreement via which Washington is operating in the Manta military base in southeastern Ecuador in support of Plan Colombia. Moreover, Noboa, moreover, has reiterated that if he assumes the presidency of the country, he will break off relations with the governments of Cuba and Venezuela.
As the banana magnate has stated, the confrontation is based on ideology and on that basis, the extreme-right candidate and that of the large foreign monopolies has called for the closing of ranks against the alternative of a new country, represented in the candidature of Rafael Correa, who is being demonized with the same arguments used by the political forces of capital and the Venezuelan right to demonize Hugo Chávez.
The former minister of the economy in the Alfredo Palacio government has been clear: "do not seek alliances among the traditional parties, among the so-called partidocracy, in order to win in the second round. We would prefer to lose one thousand times," Correa has said, before betraying any of our principles, because it was them, the representatives of the bourgeoisie, enemies of the people, who have brought the country to this current situation of instability and deterioration."
In this analysis it should not be overlooked that Alvaro Noboa of the Renovador Institucional Acción Nacional Party (PRIAN) and a wealthy entrepreneur, represents everything against which the Ecuadorians have fought and for which they have joined forces to throw out of power in the wake of huge demonstrations against three presidents: Abdalá Bucaram, Jamil Mahuad and Lucio Gutiérrez, thus demonstrating their organizational capacity and firm position against representatives of the neoliberal model that has indebted and impoverished the country.
In any event, the results of October 15 came as no surprise. In Ecuador no president has been elected in the first round since 1979. Nor is it surprising that throughout the campaigning what predominated more than presenting government programs was a systematic campaign of discredit against the Alianza País candidate, who is in the sights not only of the national right but of those further north, there in the lair of the powerful neighbor who does not want an Ecuador with a anti-neoliberal and nationalistic alternative to join the processes underway in the region that have put the hegemonic positions of the United States in checkmate.
Hence the historic responsibility of the Ecuadorian leadership to fight against the apathy provoked by the elections and the representative democracy model which, if it ever represented the people, ceased to do so a long time ago. Close to 30% of the population abstained from their right to vote. One would assume that a large part of them have been part of the street battles against those who betrayed their confidence.
The moment now is one of choosing whether to vote for the program of the right and the empire, or to join forces over and above tactical differences on the left to elect the person who is best for the country.
What we do know without any doubt is that it will never be one of those who for years has embezzled Ecuador, or has made politics an instrument for their own enrichment and a means of excluding and marginalizing the people.
That is what next November 26 is about: either voting for more of the same or constructing together with Alianza País the alternative of an Ecuador of all and for the good of all.
(Translated by English Dept, Granma International)
With results that have been questioned in the streets with demonstrations outside the Supreme Electoral Court, Ecuador will have to wait until November 26 to select the new occupant of the Carondet Palace from between multimillionaire and Messianic Alvaro Noboa – first in the presidential race with 26.6% of the votes – and the Alianza País candidate, economist Rafael Correa, the depository of 22.51% of the votes, given that neither of them reached the necessary majority in the first round of the presidential elections on October 15.
It is not often that the polls represent two projects not only well defined but totally opposed and irreconcilable: that of Correa and Alianza País which promotes social aspects and an independent anti-neoliberal road; and that of Noboa who claims to have been elected by God to convert poor Ecuadorians – 60% of the population – into middle-class ones on the basis of a program to boost speculative foreign investment, free trade and the market, and an extension of the repudiated agreement via which Washington is operating in the Manta military base in southeastern Ecuador in support of Plan Colombia. Moreover, Noboa, moreover, has reiterated that if he assumes the presidency of the country, he will break off relations with the governments of Cuba and Venezuela.
As the banana magnate has stated, the confrontation is based on ideology and on that basis, the extreme-right candidate and that of the large foreign monopolies has called for the closing of ranks against the alternative of a new country, represented in the candidature of Rafael Correa, who is being demonized with the same arguments used by the political forces of capital and the Venezuelan right to demonize Hugo Chávez.
The former minister of the economy in the Alfredo Palacio government has been clear: "do not seek alliances among the traditional parties, among the so-called partidocracy, in order to win in the second round. We would prefer to lose one thousand times," Correa has said, before betraying any of our principles, because it was them, the representatives of the bourgeoisie, enemies of the people, who have brought the country to this current situation of instability and deterioration."
In this analysis it should not be overlooked that Alvaro Noboa of the Renovador Institucional Acción Nacional Party (PRIAN) and a wealthy entrepreneur, represents everything against which the Ecuadorians have fought and for which they have joined forces to throw out of power in the wake of huge demonstrations against three presidents: Abdalá Bucaram, Jamil Mahuad and Lucio Gutiérrez, thus demonstrating their organizational capacity and firm position against representatives of the neoliberal model that has indebted and impoverished the country.
In any event, the results of October 15 came as no surprise. In Ecuador no president has been elected in the first round since 1979. Nor is it surprising that throughout the campaigning what predominated more than presenting government programs was a systematic campaign of discredit against the Alianza País candidate, who is in the sights not only of the national right but of those further north, there in the lair of the powerful neighbor who does not want an Ecuador with a anti-neoliberal and nationalistic alternative to join the processes underway in the region that have put the hegemonic positions of the United States in checkmate.
Hence the historic responsibility of the Ecuadorian leadership to fight against the apathy provoked by the elections and the representative democracy model which, if it ever represented the people, ceased to do so a long time ago. Close to 30% of the population abstained from their right to vote. One would assume that a large part of them have been part of the street battles against those who betrayed their confidence.
The moment now is one of choosing whether to vote for the program of the right and the empire, or to join forces over and above tactical differences on the left to elect the person who is best for the country.
What we do know without any doubt is that it will never be one of those who for years has embezzled Ecuador, or has made politics an instrument for their own enrichment and a means of excluding and marginalizing the people.
That is what next November 26 is about: either voting for more of the same or constructing together with Alianza País the alternative of an Ecuador of all and for the good of all.
(Translated by English Dept, Granma International)
posted by Alice at
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
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