Quito, Oct. 5 (Prensa Latina) Members of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces will occupy the country’s more than four thousand electoral districts from the 11th to ensure security, Interior Minister Juan Zapata reported today.
At a press conference this Thursday, the President explained the plan for election day on October 15th, which will see “repeating the positive practices implemented in the first round” on August 20th.
Zapata added that three command posts will be established to carry out control and work in the areas in coordination with the integrated security system ECU 911.
National Police Commander General Fausto Salinas said a contingent of 53,707 police officers would be responsible for surveillance outside polling stations.
According to Salinas, police will hold the vice presidential candidates in custody and also protect some elected members of parliament while the armed forces deal with the presidential candidates.
In addition to the increase in criminal activity, the country is suffering from an escalation in political violence. Between 2022 and 2023 there were 88 cases of attacks on officials, candidates or their relatives, such as the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio on December 9 last August.
According to a report by the Citizen Observatory of Political Violence, 84 percent of attacks were against men and 16 percent against women, while representatives of the Citizen Revolution movement suffered the most attacks (17 percent).
Ecuador will go to the polls to elect the successor to current President Guillermo Lasso between candidate Luisa González of the Citizens’ Revolution and Daniel Noboa of the National Democratic Action alliance.
Next Thursday, October 12th, the election campaign ends and begins with the early lockdown of prisoners and the so-called vote at home for the elderly and people with disabilities.
ro/avr