The lists of candidates are defined this February 4

Ecuadornews:

The schedule for the March 24 elections reaches a decisive stage. Tomorrow, February 5, 2019, it is expected that the campaign for the sectional elections and the election of the Participation Council that the National Electoral Council (CNE) carries out will begin officially. But there are still pending issues to be resolved.

For example, the CNE still has not completed the qualification stage of the 80 281 registered applications. The reason: there are still 17 pending appeals to be processed in the Contentious Electoral Court (TCE). If these causes are substantiated, the CNE would announce today, February 4, through a plenary session, the final list of names that will appear on the ballot on the day of the elections.

Once the total number of candidates for all the dignities is established, the final amount that will be assigned to them from the electoral promotion fund can be calculated. In mid-January, the CNE established the percentages of state funding that will be granted to political actors to hire proselytizing advertising in the media.

The Plenary of the organism resolved that candidates for mayorships, prefectures, as well as the entire list of urban and rural councilors, will allocate an amount equivalent to 30% of the electoral expenditure limit, in accordance with the provisions for each canton and province. The candidates for parochial meetings will receive 30% of the electoral spending limit.

For the beginning of the electoral campaign, each political organization must register an economic responsible person. Through a system of slots, the CNE will be responsible for programming the campaign in press, radio, television and billboards, according to the requirements of the candidates.

José Cabrera, CNE councilor, said that the total amount of the promotion fund will be known, once the final number of candidates is known. Another pending issue is the tender to contract the monitoring of the campaign. In the Public Procurement Portal this process appears as suspended.

According to CNE spokespersons, this happened because the three interested companies submitted a similar economic proposal during the reverse auction. According to the terms established in the portal, the maximum award date expired on January 31.

In total, the CNE qualified 701 media as suppliers for the elections. Of them, 461 are radios; 99, television channels; 105, media companies and 36, billboard companies. The staff of the 24 provincial delegations of the CNE will also initiate the monitoring of the rallies, rallies and other proselytizing events, which could be held from tomorrow. In addition, all evidence of the anticipated campaign will be counted and deducted from the promotion fund.

The CNE detected 23,521 items of unauthorized campaign. Counselor Cabrera assured that once the qualification in the country is completed, the photographs and the names of the candidates will be verified, to send the files to the Military Geographical Institute (IGM).

That entity is in charge of the production of the electoral documents. Cabrera said that in 11 provinces the qualification of candidates has already been completed and the documents to initiate the printing of ballots were sent to the IGM. Up to now, an advance of 19,15% in the printing is registered.

About the electoral campaign of the 43 candidates to the Council of Citizen Participation (Cpccs) there are also aspects to be resolved. Until now the production of the ‘spots’ and wedges that will be scheduled on television, radio and printed media should be completed. This task began last Friday, when the CNE announced the promotion plan for this unprecedented process. The candidates showed their dissatisfaction, for the haste to prepare the promotional campaign.

In total, the CNE will allocate USD 93 000 for the diffusion of the names, trajectory and proposals of each candidate to Cpccs. In the promotion regulation it was clarified that the candidates will be able to attend the interviews and debates during the campaign. But these spaces must guarantee equal participation.

The electoral campaign for the Popular Consultation on the mining exploitation in Quimsacocha (Azuay) will begin on February 10th. The proselytizing acts, on a national scale, will extend until March 21. Then, according to the schedule, there will be three days of the so-called electoral silence. (I)

Source: https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/listas-candidatos-cne-elecciones-campana.html