Pandemic no barrier to Ecuadorian elections

In what is being hailed by observers as yet another incontrovertible proof that democracy will not be derailed, Ecuadorians braved the pandemic in droves last Sunday to cast their votes for the runoff elections.

Andrez Araus, the left-wing candidate, conceded to former banker Guillermo Lasso, who rode to victory with 53% of the votes in the runoff elections. Arauz had earlier led the first round of voting with more than 30% on Feb. 7, while Lasso slid into runoff by edging indigenous candidate Yaku Perez by half a percentage point.

“I congratulate him on his electoral triumph today and I will show him our democratic convictions,” said Arauz, a known protégé of outgoing president Rafael Correa.

To minimize risks, the CNE has implemented biosafety measures overseen by the 85,000 members of the armed forces and police. Voters have been ordered to wear a mask, bring their own bottle of hand sanitizer and pencil, keep a 5-foot (1.5-meter) distance from others and avoid all personal contact in the polling place. The only time voters were allowed to lower their masks will be during the identification process.

Vice President Maria Alejandra Munoz said after the first round that these elections are "crucial" since they are taking place in a different context, "because we have not experienced a pandemic like the current one and the consequences that not all Ecuadorians are included in the short-, medium-, and long-term solutions could be dire."

CNE President Diana Atamaint said that the election was the most important day of the exercise of democracy. “Today, Ecuador wins and democracy wins," said Atamaint.

She admitted that organizing the elections during the pandemic has been a "challenge," but that the necessary sanitary conditions have been created to "care for the health of Ecuadorians and for democracy."

A total of 13,099,150 Ecuadorians, including 410,239 living abroad, were registered to vote in the elections, which had some 38,808 polling stations nationwide.

Ecuadorian voters also decided the occupants of 137 seats in the National Assembly and five seats in the Andean Parliament.

Alleged poll mess sparks Myanmar putsch

Myanmar’s precarious democracy again teeters on the edge of dictatorship after the military seized power and detained the country’s top civilian leader State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi was arrested along with several other senior figures from the ruling party following an early morning coup on Monday. The move came after weeks of threatening rhetoric from the military which has vowed to “take action” over alleged irregularities in a November election swept by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

Suu Kyi, who made international headlines as political prisoner and iconic leader of Myanmar’s democracy movement, came into power after a 2015 landslide election win. In November, the NLD won 83% of available seats, in what was widely regarded as a vote of confidence on the country’s fledgling democratic government.

Although her international star dimmed after her handling of the Rohingya refugee crisis in 2017, she remains hugely popular at home.

Evidence of fraud is scant, but it has not stopped the military from savagely attacking the November 2021, alleging discrepancies such as duplicated names on voting lists in many districts. The military had also been critical of the Union Election Commission (UEC) which has declared the elections were "done fairly and free," and that it could not have been "more transparent."

The UEC had said that the result was final and there would "not be an election re-run". The army had also alleged that early voting showed "errors of neglect" in voter lists and a "widespread violation of laws and procedures".

Ironically enough, the military itself was the architect of Myanmar’s 2008 constitution and democracy. Then, it did not see fit to completely abdicate power to civilian authority, so they instituted a permanent role for itself in the political system. Under Myanmar law, the military gets an unelected quota of 25% of parliamentary seats.