The electoral observation mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) deployed in Ecuador for the general elections confirmed normality yesterday in the first hours of the vote.
The head of the electoral mission of the OAS, the Panamanian Isabel de Saint Malo, indicated that they were "satisfied" with the reports of the observers of the international organization deployed in twenty provinces of the country.
The former Vice President and Foreign Minister of Panama stressed that even in the most violent areas the population had come to vote early in an orderly and fluid manner. And she reiterated the call to avoid threats and verbal violence, "which does not correspond to democracy", and to respect the results.
In these extraordinary elections, more than 13.4 million Ecuadorians were summoned to the polls to elect a new president and the 137 new members of the National Assembly (Parliament). Two environmental consultations were also voted on, one of a national nature to stop oil exploitation in an important deposit in the Yasuní National Park, and another in Quito to prohibit all types of mining in the Chocó Andino, declared a biosphere reserve by Unesco.
Marked by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, these elections take place in the midst of the worst security crisis in Ecuador, immersed in a wave of violence that the authorities attribute to organized crime and drug trafficking.
