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Two social groups sign up to campaign for the No
Posted On 21 Dec 2017
Ecuadornews:
The National Electoral Council will meet this Friday in Guayaquil to process the 11 organizations that signed up for the two options in the plebiscite. Then, those that are qualified, counting on those that are already (30), will receive resources from the Electoral Promotion Fund to pay for television, radio, written press and billboards. For each question there is a general promotion amount of $ 279,141.
Yesterday at 23:59 was the deadline granted by the National Electoral Council for social organizations to register to campaign for the Yes or No in the referendum and consultation. Up to 5:30 p.m. yesterday, eleven groups were registered, of which nine foresee supporting the Yes in all the questions.
This period was extended after the original deadline expired on December 12. The electoral body granted 48 hours more for those groups that were not admitted within the normal period in order to overcome the requirements established by law. With this, from today, prior to the analysis of the Legal
Department of the National Electoral Council and with the subsequent approval in plenary, the exact number of those organizations that will be enabled for the campaign will be defined. These will be added to the 16 social groups and 14 politicians that had already been approved by the National Electoral Council.
These 30 organizations will campaign for the Yes in the consultation and referendum.
As of Tuesday, 7 petitions had been submitted to the electoral body, of which only the representatives of 4 organizations presented the missing documents with the corrected errors. On the other hand, the members of the Permanent National Forum of Women re-entered all the documentation to choose to campaign for the No. Meanwhile, the Social Front of Women Manuelitas, one of the new groups that was registered yesterday, seeks to make Campaign for the No in 6 questions (1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7) and for the Yes in one (4, which refers to the non-prescription of sexual crimes against boys and girls). The president of that front is Rudalinda Arreaga, who explained that the entity enjoys legal status as of 2007, that is, from the government of the President of the Republic, Rafael Correa.
Yesterday morning the request of the leadership of the National Chamber of Heavy Transporters and the Environment entered. This group, on the other hand, will promote the Yes.
Once presented the documentation, Fausto Holguín, secretary of the National Electoral Council, indicated that the electoral body will start today the validation of the requirements that have entered for the plenary session to pronounce on these social organizations.
He also explained that in general the social organizations that were not approved and that corrected the documentation did not specify their legal status. Another problem, he argued, is that the decision-making body of the organizations within the minutes that they have presented to the National Electoral Council did not specify the persons or bodies that made the decision by the Yes or by the No. Paul Salazar, National Electoral Council councilor, affirmed that tomorrow the electoral body will meet in Guayaquil where they will approve or deny the respective inscriptions of the social organizations that were registered yesterday.
At the same time, he dismissed the version of former President Rafael Correa, who, through his Twitter account, denounced that this extension of time was intended to enroll “paper organizations” by the No. At the discretion of the former president, supposedly, this it had the purpose of subtracting the financing of the Permanent National Forum of Women for the promotion in the campaign, which until recently was the only organization that was registered by the No.
“The National Electoral Council what it does is the verification of the requirements, for that reason there is no such reason (on that statement of the former president). Even 4 of the organizations that are correcting documents opt for the Yes, “he said. Salazar clarified that the electoral body does not act by a political bias and stressed that the action is based on the law. “About former President Correa, all citizens are free to express themselves,” he said, but as an institution said they are clear to say that “we could not open for the organizations that had already signed up to be corrected.” In democracy, he added, the doors are opened so that all social organizations that wish to participate can do so, “he said.
Likewise, the National Electoral Council is awaiting the decision of the Contentious Electoral Court on the appeal made by Assemblywoman Gabriela Rivadeneira for the registration of the Alianza PAIS movement to campaign for the Yes.
11 social organizations registered
Until the closing of the edition (5:45 pm) 11 social organizations registered to participate in the consultation and referendum. These 11 could be added to the 30 political and social organizations that have already qualified. There, the inscription of Amaru, Amae Ecuador, Cucomitae, Fundamedios, the Citizen Observation Center, the National Chamber of Transport Pesa of Ecuador, the Federation of Chambers of Construction, the Association for Development, Participation and Social Empowerment and the National Confederation of Public Servants. All these organizations opt for the Yes. While the Permanent National Forum of the Ecuadorian Woman is voting no. Meanwhile, another organization was partially registered, which is the Social Front of Women Manuelitas.
Political and social organizations
The Code of Democracy is clear: the National Electoral Council does not deliver economic resources to political subjects, ie those who are enrolled in one of the two options. Salazar explains that the Electoral Promotion Fund allocates resources -but directly- through a computer system. “It’s like a virtual quota”, said the counselor, detailing that the National Electoral Council pays directly to the four media: written press, television, radio and billboards. With this regulation, the electoral body gives the political subjects a computer tool so that they can promote according to their registration. It should be remembered that the option Yes and the option will not each have a promotion amount of $ 1’953.989.
That amount was divided for the 7 questions of the consultation and referendum, which gives a figure of $ 279,141. That amount will be divided for the political and social organizations that have registered for that question (for that option: Yes or No). From there, the National Electoral Council gives social and political organizations a key to access the system that will generate the guidelines, as long as it has been agreed or negotiated with the media, depending on the conditions in which it will be disseminated the guidelines for the consultation. Salazar recalled that there is an express prohibition during the campaign period, which is from January 3 to February 1, in which nobody can generate publicity in these media recognized by the Code of Democracy without leaving the Fund for Electoral Promotion. If this is not done, the National Electoral Council will issue the respective sanctions.
Printing of ballots for the consultation began yesterday Diego Tello, National Coordinator of Processes of the National Electoral Council, informed that yesterday began the printing of the ballots and electoral documents in the Military Geographical Institute. The cost of the ballots will be of $ 1,434,950 and of the documents of $ 1,977,111. Then, this material will be delivered by the Geographic Institute to the company in charge (of the electoral kits), which has not yet been defined by the National Electoral Council Tello also reported that tomorrow you can find out through the National Electoral Council website the polling place and if the citizen is a member of a board.
Schedule
The National Electoral Council defined training
The electoral body will initiate the training of the members of the Voting Receiving Boards from January 2 to February 3, 2018. Virtual training will also be enabled.
Public Force and Observers
The entity will also train members of the public force and for this purpose it was set from January 15 to 28, 2018, while the process with the observers of the process will be from January 15 to 25.
Information in the payrolls
Once the voter base was defined, this information will be delivered by the National Electoral Council to the basic services companies so that from this month they can send the information about the polling place on their forms.
Obligatory and fines
It was also reported that the virtual training to the members of the voting receiving boards is optional, but that the on-site training is mandatory. The fine will be 15% of a unified basic salary.
Speed in the transmission
The plenary session approved that in the meetings where there are from 1 to 50 electors, the results are transmitted through the computer tools. This will prevent the results from being known after the close of the elections.
Information to delegates
From January 25 to February 2 will be the period to train delegates of political subjects
(I)
