14 national organizations prepare campaigns for consultation

Ecuadornews:

For the process of popular consultation and referendum, 30 days of electoral campaign have been arranged. The political and social organizations, with structure at national level, can register to participate from next Friday. Of the 17 national parties and movements registered in the National Electoral Council (CNE), 14 have already defined their presence to encourage voting for the yes for the seven questions of the process.

The leaders of Centro Democrático, Compromiso Social, Adelante Ecuatoriano Adelante, Avanza, Fuerza Ecuador, Unidad Popular, Unión Ecuatoriana, Pachakutik, Creo, Concertación, Alianza País, Izquierda Democrática, Partido Social Cristia y Justicia Social, confirmed that they will be mobilized for this option.

Henry Cucalón, leader and assemblyman of  Partido Social Cristiano, said that it is a fact that they will support the yes. The same assures Guillermo Celi of SUMA. But, in both organizations, a resolution has not yet been taken.

The decision they make will depend on the analysis of the origin of the referendum. They consider that the process is of citizenship, so parties and movements should avoid appropriating this.

On the other hand, the Partido Sociedad Patriotica depends on whether or not the National Electoral Council raises its suspension to participate in the campaign. Schedule 3 was sanctioned because its party fund accounts show inconsistencies. Gilmar Gutiérrez, president of the party, said that they will support the yes anyway.

The Plenary of the National Electoral Council approved on Friday, December 1, 2017, the regulations for the participation, hiring and payment of electoral promotion, and control of advertising and electoral propaganda, for popular consultation.

For the document to be public and official, in the next session of the body it must be ratified. This newspaper had access to the first version.

The way in which the electoral spending limit will be calculated is established. Each organization will have a ceiling depending on the number of questions for which it is registered and the number of registered for each option and question.

The base in which the distribution to the ones  registered will be about USD 1.9 million. The amount results from the multiplication of the registered voters, which according to the projection will be about 13 million people, for USD 0.15 (amount stipulated in article 209 of the Code of Democracy).

This amount will be covered by the organizations registered with their own resources and will be used to carry out events and the preparation and delivery of promotional material. Which then must be justified before the National Electoral Council.

In addition, the Regulation indicates that the electoral promotion fund will be equal to the maximum value of the electoral spending limit of each organization. This item refers to advertising in radio, press and television. And the hiring of billboards.

The figure comes out of the electoral budget that the National Electoral Council manages, but it is not delivered to the organizations. It is the same Council that contracts the guidelines with the media and companies that register as suppliers of the election.

Some political organizations have already begun the campaign, even before the National Electoral Council convened the election, which will take place on Thursday, December 7. César Monge, national director of Creo, indicates that the movement has been in this task for about 45 days. For this they have made several events in different provinces of the country with the participation of the expressible Guillermo Lasso.

They organize talks and seminars to understand the scope of the changes raised in the questions by President Lenin Moreno. Above all, he says, with the most significant ones, such as the election of indefinite re-election and the restructuring of the Participation Council.

The same path was taken by Unidad Popular (UP). Its director, Geovanny Atarihuana, was on Friday in Portoviejo, Saturday in Latacunga and Sunday in Esmeraldas “to talk with the bases about the arguments that we will use in the electoral campaign”.

In the election promotion period of the consultation will be fought another battle for the control of Alianza País (AP). The morenista directive that was recognized by the new leadership of the National Electoral Council has anticipated that it will campaign for the yes.

However, the other faction (correísta) thinks otherwise. Virgilio Hernandez states that first they will exhaust all the instances to challenge the call to popular consultation and then they will analyze if they will register or not. They will assess whether there are “democratic guarantees”.

Civil society will also have space in the campaign. At least 30 organizations supported the call to the popular consultation and now must define whether they participate as political subjects in the process.

José Villavicencio, president of the Workers Unity Front (FUT) -which groups seven union organizations- explains that this coalition cannot register to campaign because it does not have a national legal status. But it will do the fronts that integrate it, individually, as the General Union of Workers (UGT).

So will the indigenous movements. Lourdes Tibán, leader of the Conaie, said that this week several acts will be held, like a mobilization in favor of the electoral process. Social and political organizations may register until December 12, 2017.

The Electoral Council, chaired by Nubia Villacís, approved last Friday the call for consultation. Organizations can register from December 8 to December 12 for the campaign, this will be from January 3 to February 1, 2018. That is, it will last 30 days. (I)

Source: http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/organizaciones-campana-voto-elecciones-consulta.html