A new Citizen Participation Council will be chosen from 43 applicants
Ecuadornews:
This March 24, Ecuadorians eligible to vote will receive three additional ballots that will include 43 candidates to be members of the Council of Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPC) definitive.
The reform Law of the Participation Council established that voters can vote for up to seven candidates: three from the list of men, three from the list of women and one from the list of peoples and Ecuadorians abroad.
The list of the 28 male candidates will be included on the A4-sized ballot; in another, of size A5, there will be the eleven candidates; and in a last one, also A4, will be the four postulants of the peoples and migrants.
The voter must be careful because if he votes for four or more figures, he will automatically cancel the ballot.
The norm determined that if a candidate of the nationalities does not appear in the elect, the one who has obtained the largest number of votes will be appointed as the seventh director and the alternate will be the one with the most votes of the one representing the migrants.
For the other cases of substitution, the elected ones will be those who “obtain the subsequent higher votes in the lists of men and women”.
They will be identified on the ballot by their names, not by numbers or letters.
These authorities were elected through a public contest held by the National Electoral Council (CNE), but after the referendum on February 4, 2018, the procedure was modified and are now elected by popular vote.
According to the electoral calendar, they will assume their positions on May 14, along with the mayors, prefects, councilors and members of parochial boards that will be elected in the sectional elections of March 24.
The president of the CNE, Diana Atamaint, explained that the results of the counting of votes to know who will be the new directors will be the last to be known. He said that citizens first want to know who will govern in their town or canton.
To these new authorities, the Constitution entrusts them with the fulfillment of twelve attributions. Among the main ones, select 18 state control authorities and investigate complaints about events that affect participation and generate corruption.
The current Council of Participation in transition, chaired by Julio César Trujillo, hopes to conclude the selection of authorities that were ceased by the evaluation they applied in compliance with the mandate from February 4 to March or beginning of April. With what the new counselors would not have officials to select.
They will inherit an institution with a budget for this year of $ 9,562,696. And among the tasks they will assume are the investigation of corruption cases related to the works built in the government of Rafael Correa.
Also verify compliance with the delivery of accountability reports that must be submitted by about four thousand servers of all State functions.
In any case, the 43 candidates who aspire to occupy one of the seven offices of the CPC are not authorized to carry out political proselytizing or electoral propaganda.
The law authorizes only the Electoral Council to promote who they are, what their trajectory and proposals are.
The CNE has not yet disclosed the communication mechanisms that will be used to promote them.
But no “party or political movement, social organization, public official, candidate or citizen may perform acts of political proselytizing for or against any candidate”, cites the current regulations.
Neither may they receive or use private financing of any kind. Whoever fails to comply will be disqualified.
On January 4, the candidates asked the five electoral counselors for clarifications on the electoral promotion. For example, if they can disseminate their proposals on social networks, which are not regulated by the Code of Democracy.
Atamaint said that next Friday they would be summoned to inform them how they will do their promotion. (I)