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About 32,450 military men will guard the polling stations, transport the electoral material and guarantee the security of the votes’ counting.
On Friday, Ecuador’s electoral authorities started the final preparations for the Feb. 5 subnational elections, in which some 13,4 million citizens are called to vote.
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From Friday to Sunday, political campaigning is prohibited. The sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages sales are also banned so that citizens can reflect on and peacefully exercise their votes. Anyone who breaks these rules will be fined up to US$200.
The Electoral Council announced that 32,450 military men will guard the polling stations, transport the electoral material, and guarantee the security of the votes’ counting process, which is likely to last ten days.
“After conducting a survey and obtaining intelligence assessments, we detected that there are some sectors where we need to take greater precautions due to their high violence records and political polarity,” Armed Forces Command Chief Nelson Proaño stressed.
#Cocaine | Ecuador’s port of Guayaquil is by far the country’s main cocaine gateway. But gangs are fighting to control a slew of other exit points along the coast.
— InSight Crime (@InSightCrime) January 31, 2023
�� https://t.co/N2TA1H0V6L pic.twitter.com/KeMf9dVua2
In this electoral process, Ecuadorians will elect 23 provincial prefects, 221 mayors, 1,307 councilors, and other subnational authorities. On Sunday, citizens will also answer a referendum made up of eight yes or no questions on the need to modify some principles established by the Constitution.
Driven by conservative President Guillermo Lasso, the referendum seeks to transform the institutions related to oversight of the public sector, reduce the number of national legislators, and change regulations related to natural resources..
This popular consultation is going to be a form of evaluation to the Lasso administration,a local political analyst stated,recalling that Lasso went from having a 78 percent approval at the beginning of his term to a 8 percent approval today.
Ola Bini, a Swedish programmer and cyberactivist activist, imprisoned in Ecuador falsely accused of participating in efforts to politically destabilise the Lenin Moreno government in Ecuador, has been freed. #OlaBini #Ecuador pic.twitter.com/rNh0U3ODuS
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) February 1, 2023
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