According to the National Electoral Council (CNE), eight candidates registered to participate in the early general elections to be held in Ecuador on August 20, after President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the Congress.
The NEC stated that the registration of 100% of the candidates who had been elected in the primaries of the different political parties was completed. The first candidate to register was businessman Daniel Noboa, son of tycoon Alvaro Noboa, who had previously sought the presidency five times.
Other businessmen who will participate in the race are Jan Topic, linked to security and telecommunications companies and a former sniper of the French foreign legion, and Xavier Hervas, who also competed in previous elections.
Otto Sonnenholzner, former vice president of Lenín Moreno between December 2018 and July 2020, also registered as a candidate. Yaku Pérez, an indigenous leader who came in third place in the 2021 elections, will again seek the presidency. The party related to former president Rafael Correa registered former congresswoman Luisa González as its candidate, the only woman in the race.
In these elections, for the first time and in compliance with the law, political parties had to present two candidates, one man and one woman.
Other candidates who will participate in the elections are Fernando Villavicencio, a journalist and critic of Correism, and Bolívar Armijos, a lawyer and former leader of a local government council.
Early general elections in Ecuador will be held to complete the current term, which ends in 2025, following President Lasso’s dissolution of Congress. In addition to electing the president, Ecuadorians must also vote for 137 representatives for the legislature.
On the same day as the general elections, two popular consultations promoted by environmental groups will be held. These consultations are aimed at stopping oil and mining exploitation in two areas declared Biosphere Reserves.
One of the consultations will decide whether to leave oil in the ITT block, located in the Amazonian region of Yasuní, which is one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet and home to people in voluntary isolation. The other consultation will take place in Quito, and the inhabitants will decide whether or not to allow mining in the Andean Chocó, an area close to the Ecuadorian capital and home to the spectacled bear, an endangered species.