Luisa González and Daniel Noboa fine-tune their second round campaign and prepare for the face-to-face presidential debate. The objective is to convince those who did not vote for them.
After the first week of the official campaign for the second presidential round, candidates Luisa González, from Revolución Ciudadana, and Daniel Noboa, from the ADN alliance, are trying to appear closer to the population. They share the music they like and take advantage of social networks to promote their messages.
Events with citizens also make way for meetings with different social sectors. While Noboa places emphasis on university students, González takes the opportunity to deal with associations, federations and unions.
But, at the same time, the campaigns of both candidates are marked by other actors who accompany them, either in a representative manner or as spokespersons for the proposals that each one promises to promote.
Next, PRIMICIAS shows how each one’s campaign develops:
Luisa Gonzalez
In the case of Luisa González, from the Citizen Revolution, the most technical and political issues of the campaign are presented by former president Rafael Correa and former presidential candidate Andrés Arauz.
The former president’s media agenda and his spokesperson on social networks seem to set the pace of the Correísta campaign. In addition, all elected assembly members and local authorities who belong to the same political group help push the presidential candidacy.
The Correísta communication apparatus is focused on showing the experience they have in the state administration, ignoring criticism of what was their decade of government.
However, the 3.3 million votes that González obtained in the first round, alluding to the “resurgence of the Homeland” are composed mainly of the hard-core Correísta vote. It is about the electorate that is convinced and maintains its loyalty.
And this is not enough to reach the presidential seat in the second round. So the image of the campaign had a twist. Now González is trying to appear closer to young voters, not only with a change in posture and typography, but also with the content she shares and the message she spreads.
Now, as an electoral slogan, he is betting “for the good of all. ” The candidate talks about the need for reconciliation and how her experience serving Rafael Correa can be useful in the 17 months of government that the winner will have.
And, since Daniel Noboa ‘s campaign never leveraged attacks on his opponents, she does not personally lead the criticism against him. That contest is driven by the rest of the actors around her, including Correa himself.
Even with the presidential debate ahead and the official start of the campaign, candidate González preferred not to have a public agenda and travel to Mexico to meet with the Citizen Revolution bureau, a good part of which is in exile, arguing a political persecution against him.
Noboa’s positive positioning after the August 13 debate and his passage to the second round showed that the upcoming televised rematch can tip the balance among undecided voters.
And there are 5.1 million voters who in the first round chose other options , other than the current candidates.
Daniel Noboa
Unlike Luisa González, Daniel Noboa, from the ADN alliance (People, Equality and Democracy and the Mover movement), does not have a partisan apparatus that promotes his candidacy and helps him position and spread his messages.
Therefore, in this second round, the candidate has chosen to rely unreservedly on the image of his family and the political and humorous memories of his father , although the presence of Álvaro Noboa as such has not had a place.
The pillars of Noboa’s campaign are now: his mother, Annabella Azín, his wife, Lavinia Valbonesi, and his aunt, Isabel Noboa. They have become the image to project during this part of the contest.
His mother is responsible for driving the message about health care, his wife is the face of children’s nutrition, and his aunt appears in messages about financial education for young people. Thus, Noboa supports his slogan: “we are the new generation . ”
But, in addition, Noboa exploits the advantages of his age (35 years), to try to connect with millennial voters, who are the largest group on the registry. That’s why his networks are flooded with reggaeton and playlists that he shares with his followers.
For this reason, among his videos it is easy to find images of Noboa singing, dancing and playing the bass or guitar. He has even become a comic book character , in which he discusses the proposals of him under the title ‘ Noboa Power ‘.
But, on this occasion, Noboa is also committed to talking about new proposals , such as security, housing, health and education. Initially, the emphasis had been on his job creation proposal.
Even one of his latest campaign offers is to modernize and equip law enforcement to combat insecurity. He does it in an explanatory video, ‘Jan Topic’ style, using images that seem taken from a movie.
The main difference in Noboa’s campaign, which has marked the electoral contest, is that he has not placed emphasis on his opponent, Correismo or any other political actor, despite the criticism leveled against him.
With a categorical rejection of what he calls a dirty campaign, Noboa aims to retain the 2.3 million votes of the first round, as well as convince the 5.1 million citizens who preferred another alternative.