Israel, Nicaragua, Russia and Belarus: Ecuador suspends voting in four countries
The National Electoral Council (CNE) decided this Saturday to suspend the voting process in Israel because the war with Hamas prevents ensuring the security of the 293 registered Ecuadorians and embassy officials. In Belarus and Russia, where 445 Ecuadorians were eligible to vote, election packages did not arrive on time due to restrictions on flight connections to those two countries, the election judge reported. This decision also applies in Nicaragua due to the diplomatic tensions that the outgoing government of Guillermo Lasso maintains with the regime of Daniel Ortega. Ecuador closed its embassy in Central America in 2020.
A total of 825 Ecuadorians living in these four countries will not be able to vote in the second round. Meanwhile, the other 390,000 people registered abroad have already started voting after the official opening ceremony of the CNE voting abroad this Saturday at three o’clock in the afternoon local time. The first voters were residents of Australia. In addition, there were 526 people who voted at home, which corresponds to people over 50 and with disabilities. Since Thursday, electoral teams have also been in the country’s prisons to collect the votes of 903 people who have been deprived of their freedom without having a conviction that would deprive them of this right.