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On Feb. 19, Ecuador holds elections for the next president of the South American nation. Alianza Pais, the party which has led the Citizens' Revolution under President Rafael Correa for the past 10 years, is looking to remain in power to continue improving the lives of marginalized populations and building a strong sovereign country.
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Ecuador Elections 2017
This will be a key election in which the Andean country will decide whether to continue this legacy through the ruling party or choose one of the other seven candidates of the divided opposition, who have all focused their campaign on changing these progressive initiatives. If one candidate does not win more than 50 percent of the vote, a second round of elections will be held in April.
1. Lenin Moreno
Alianza Pais, socialist.
Proposals: Create 200,000 jobs, guarantee access to higher education by creating orientation centers for students, improve living conditions for seniors, introduce preferential interest rates for young entrepreneurs who need loans.
The designated successor of Correa, Moreno is leading in the latest polls. He was vice president from 2007 to 2013 and has been in a wheelchair since being shot in 1998. He has since served as special envoy on disability and accessibility at the United Nations.
Hugely popular in Ecuador, Moreno was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 by lawmakers in Ecuador's National Assembly for his "Ecuador Sin Barreras" project, which has transformed governmental policy on people with disabilities and helped thousands through job placement guarantees and subsidies for caregivers.
2. Guillermo Lasso
Alianza Creo-SUMA, right-wing, neoliberal.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Proposals: Create 1 million jobs, offer 1 percent interest-rate credits, eliminate examinations for university studies, lower and eliminate taxes, allow farmers to carry weapons.
Lasso, an entrepreneur and banker, played a major role in the country's banking crisis in 1999 as economic minister under the government of Jamil Mahuad.
In 1999, the government froze all bank deposits for an amount of US$1.84 million for up to a year, leading to a crisis. In an effort to protect the banks in the country, Mahuad’s government assumed the debt and drove almost 3 million Ecuadoreans to leave the country.
Lasso ran against Correa in 2013, obtaining 23 percent of the vote. Lasso has been the main opponent of the social and economic achievements of Correa and Alianza Pais, which have benefited the poor in the country. A recent book has revealed Lasso as the mastermind of right-wing attacks to discredit Correo and his government's progressive agenda.
An entrepreneur, politician and banker, Lasso supports a free-market economy and increased participation of the private sector. Through proposals such as the privatization of health care and a repeal of Correa's media law, Lasso's policy proposals would likely roll back many of the advances of the Citizens' Revolution.
3. Cynthia Viteri
Partido Social Cristiano, right-wing, neoliberal.
Photo: EFE
Proposals: Stimulate productivity in border areas near Peru and Colombia by creating special economic zones favoring foreign investors.
The lawyer led the press department of Jaime Nebot's presidential campaign in 1996 and later worked in his office when he became mayor of Guayaquil in 2000. The current mayor of Guayaquil, Nebot is one of the most critical opponents of Correa's policies.
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Supported by Nebot and other economic elites, Viteri ran in the 2006 presidential election for the Social Christian Party and ranked fifth with 9 percent of the vote.
In 2009, she was elected as a representative of the regional assembly in Guayas province, with an alliance between the Social Christians and the Madera Civic Movement. She then became one of the most notorious opponents of Alianza Pais' Citizens' Revolution.
4. Paco Moncayo
Izquierda Democratica, progressive.
Photo: EFE
Proposals: Strengthen the dollar system and stimulate private investment, promote an ethics pact so companies don't evade taxes, decriminalize abortion in rape cases.
Moncayo, a former army general, defines himself as a social democrat. He was a congressman from 1998 to 2000, mayor of Quito from 2000 to 2009 and a representative for Pichincha from 2009 to 2013.
5. Dalo Bucaram
Fuerza Ecuador, center-left.
Photo: EFE
Proposals: Encourage a better understanding between the public and private sectors in order to fight “inadequate employment,” eliminate protections, lower income tax from 14 to 10 percent.
Son of former President Abdala Bucaram Ortiz, Bucaram has denied any possibility of an alliance with other center-left organizations.
6. Patricio Zuquilanda
Partido Sociedad Patriotica, nationalist.
Photo: EFE
Proposals: Maintain the dollar economy through an "efficient control of public spending," reform the constitution to eliminate the Citizen Participation Council, change the manner in which the electorate council is nominated, revoke the communication law.
Zuquilanda was minister of foreign affairs from 2003 to 2005 and defines himself as a nationalist. He considers his politics as belonging neither to the right nor to the left.
7. Ivan Espinel
Fuerza y Compromiso Social, self-defined "neither left nor right."
Photo: Facebook / Ivan Espinel
Proposals: Privatize public companies, open relations completely with the United States, increase sentences for embezzlement charges from 13 to 40 years, impose the death penalty for murderers and child molesters.
Thirty-one-year-old Espinel is a doctor and has called himself the "new face of Ecuadorean politics."
8. Washington Pesantez
Union Ecuatoriana, center-left.
Photo: EFE
Proposals: Limit state intervention in the economy, summon a national constituent assembly to end "hyper-presidentialism," support private investment to create more jobs.
Pesantez defines himself as center-left and once supported Correa, but eventually broke all links with the government. He has emphasized that he will never align with the right wing.
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