Ecuador: 'Union for Hope' Continues in the Presidential Race

Ecuador's National Electoral Council (CNE) accepted on Wednesday night a legal appeal that gives Andres Arauz and Carlos Rabascall 48 hours to register their candidacies for the presidency and vice-presidency, respectively.

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“With just 3 votes to 2, Ecuador’s electoral council chose democracy over dictatorship. Arauz will be on the ballot! Thank you to all those who defended the right of the Ecuadorian people to free and fair elections. Your solidarity was crucial in making this narrow victory possible,” former Foreign Affairs Minister Guillaume Long tweeted.

After Rafael Correa was disqualified by a court ruling on Sept. 7, the candidacy presented by the Union for Hope alliance (Arauz-Correa) was also disqualified, which forced this left-wing movement to request that journalist Carlos Rabascall be registered as its vice-presidential candidate for the next general election on February 7, 2021.

The CNE ratified that Correa is disqualified from participating in the elections due to the condemnatory sentence executed for his alleged participation in a bribery crime.

That sentence suspends the political rights of the leftist leader and prevents him from participating in electoral processes for the next eight years.

Once it became known that the Union for Hope alliance could register a new vice-presidential candidate, Correa thanked thousands of citizens who took to the streets during the last two days to defend democracy in Ecuador.

"We did it! CNE was unable to eliminate the binomial of hope. The situation in the country is so precarious that we must be 'happy' for compliance with what the law says. Thank you all... We will win!" the leftist leader tweeted.

"The mobilized citizenship, the active militancy, and the decisive international support have been fundamental factors to ensure this first step towards the recovery of the Homeland next February. We have the Arauz-Rabascall binomial," tweeted Ricardo Patiño, a historical leader of the Citizen Revolution who lives in Mexico as a political asylee.