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2007 Assessment

Ecuador: Integrity Indicators Scorecard

Ecuador: Integrity Scorecard Report > Sub-Category: Voting & Citizen Participation
Indicators		Score
14	Is there a legal framework guaranteeing the right to vote?	100
15	Can all citizens exercise their right to vote?	92
16	Are citizens able to participate equally in the political process?	80

Indicator and sub-Indicator Details

Is there a legal framework guaranteeing the right to vote?

14a: In law, universal and equal adult suffrage is guaranteed to all citizens.

Score:

YES

Comments: The article 27 of the National Constitution says that the popular vote will be universal, equal, direct and secret... for Ecuadorians older than 18 years old . Hence the vote is a free expression of the democracy.

The Law on Elections restricts the right to vote from the citizens who are not registered in the electoral base and members of the police and military forces in active service.

References: National Constitution, Article 27 Law on Elections, Article 5

Peer Review Comments: The vote is not guaranteed to citizens who serve in the military or the police force.

14b: In law, there is a legal framework requiring that elections be held at regular intervals.

Score:

YES

Comments: The article 164 of the National Constitution, says that the presidential tenure will last for a period of four years. Therefore, elections for public dignities are performed every four years.

The Interamerican Convention on Human Rights and Pact of Economic, Social, Cultural and Political Rights indicate that: All the citizens must enjoy the following rights and opportunities: to vote and to be chosen in periodic elections,universal, equal suffrage and secret vote; guaranteeing the free expression of the voters.

The Law on Elections determines the limits and terms of the electoral process.

References: Article 164 of the National Constitution of Ecuador Article 23 of the Interamerican Convention on Human Rights Article 25 of the Pact of Economic, Social, Cultural and Political Rights (Pacto de Derechos económicos, sociales, culturales, civiles políticos) Art. 45 of the Law on Elections

Can all citizens exercise their right to vote?

15a: In practice, all adult citizens can vote.

Score:

100

Comments: At the present time all the citizens have the obligatory right to vote. People in the public forces are not allowed to vote, as are people who are not nominated in the electoral lists. Illiterate people and those older than 65 years have the optional right to vote.

In the last presidential elections, Ecuadorians who live abroad had the option to vote, only in the cities with embassies and consulates and the citizens had to be registered in the electoral lists. Voting in rural section proved difficult because the electoral ballots were delayed. Most of people in Ecuador don't have an opinion as how to they should vote. For that reason, the CSO Citizen Participation (PC--Participación Cidadana) proposes campaigns with he principle goal to educate the people about the candidates' platforms.

References: Law on Elections, Article 1, 2,3 and 4

www.elcomercio.com.ec 13 de Octubre del 2006 Los discapacitados pueden votar,

www.elcomercio.com.ec 16 de Octubre del 2006 El emigrante votó de manera entusiasta,

Concertación Ecuador, Módulo V Institucionalidad y Gobernabilidad para el desarrollo por Banco Central del Ecuador,

Interview with Francisco Delgado (Participación Ciudadana)

Peer Review Comments: Citizens who are in the police force or the military are prohibited from voting.

15b: In practice, ballots are secret or equivalently protected.

Score:

100

Comments: In most of the cases the ballots are secret, but an isolated event showed that the ballots could not be protected completely.

In Muisne, (Esmeraldas) the citizens said people were voting who were not registered in the electoral ballots of Muisne. This caused fights and two people were wounded and the elections were suspended. Although the Organization of American State declared that there were no acts of fraud and that the elections were transparent, the citizens thought there was fraud because there were problems in the vote counting.

References: www.elcomercio.com.ec (16 de Octubre del 2006) Los disturbios de Muisne dejaron 2 heridos y urnas quemadas

www.elcomercio.com.ec (17 de Octubre del 2006) ¿Prueba de fraude o cartón para reciclar?

15c: In practice, elections are held according to a regular schedule.

Score:

100

Comments: Elections are held according to regular schedules, president, vice president and deputies are elected every four years.

References: www.tse.gov.ec

Law on Elections, Article 46 and 49

Peer Review Comments: Ecuador's recent political history, where three presidents were overthrown in a decade, has altered the schedule of elections. However, no elections have been missed; instead, the time periods between elections have become shorter because of political developments.

Are citizens able to participate equally in the political process?

16a: In law, all citizens have a right to form political parties.

Score:

YES

Comments: Article 114 of the Constitution establishes the right to establish political parties will be guaranteed and to participate in them in the established conditions expressed by the Law.

References: National Constitution, Article 114 Law on Elections, Article 9

16b: In law, all citizens have a right to run for political office.

Score:

YES

Comments: Article 26 of the National Constitution indicates that Ecuadorian citizens will enjoy the right to choose and to be chosen.

References: National Constitution, Article 26 Law on Elections, Article 4 and Article 6 ,No.2

16c: In practice, all citizens are able to form political parties.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: While there is no guarantee of electoral success, political parties can form freely without opposition. <p>50 Score Criteria: Some barriers to formation are present, such as burdensome registration requirements that may not be fairly applied. Some parties\' political viewpoints may draw pressure from the government, such as surveillance or intimidation. Some political parties or organizations may have extra barriers to getting on a ballot. <p>0 Score Criteria: Some political parties are effectively barred from forming through some manner of official or unofficial pressure. This may include threats, arrest, or violence from competing parties or other groups.$

Comments: All the citizens can group in political movements that later would be constituted in political parties. They have to complete the requirements enacted by Tribunal Supremo Electoral (TSE), after to introduce and complete the respective steps, the TSE will qualify the political movements. Once TSE approve the constitution of the political party, it will compete in the next elections. Ecuador has a lot of political parties; in the elections of 2006 were 142 political movements an increase of 97.2% more than the political movements that were written in the elections of the 2002. Therefore, the citizens believe in new political figures, because they could break the traditional outlines and make changes that didn't carry out by traditional parties. For that reason the Ecuadorians don not feel represented by the traditional political parties. Although those political movements don't represent a significant participation in the intention of the citizens' vote, they represent a vision of how the problems should be solved in the country.

References: www.elcomercio.com (20 de Agosto de 2006) En el país hay cada vez más movimientos políticos , TSE Tribunal Supremo Electoral www.tse.gov.ec , Ecuador 2006: La polarización del proceso electoral escrito por Juan J Paz y Miño. [ LINK ]

16d: In practice, all citizens can run for political office.

Score:

100

Comments: All citizens are allowed to run for political office, but they have to be affiliated to a political party or political movement.

Rafael Correa could win the presidential elections because he founded a new political movement PAIS Alliance (Alianza País). PAIS Alliance won in the second electoral turn over the political party National Action Institutional Renewal Party(PRIAN--Partido Renovador Institucional Acción Nacional), whose candidate was Álvaro Noboa. Also in the first turn, PAIS Alliance won over traditional parties like: the Socal Christian Party (PSC -- Partido Social Cristiano) with the candidate Cynthia Viteri, the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party (PRE -- Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano) with Fernando Rosero and the party (ID RED) with León Roldós.

References: www.elcomercio.com (20 de Octubre de 2006) Los partidos políticos, los grandes perdedores

www.elcomercio.com (23 de Octubre de 2006) Lo positivo de la elección,

Peer Review Comments: In Ecuador, a citizen willing to run for political office has to gather an established number of support signatures. This is a long and costly process that not all citizens can afford.

Peer Review Comments: Citizens cannot participate as independents. They must belong to parties, and the parties are discredited in the eyes of the public.

16e: In practice, an opposition party is represented in the legislature.

Score:

100

$Scoring Criteria :: 100 Score Criteria: The opposition party always has some influence on the proceedings of the legislature. The opposition party can introduce legislation or bring pending matters to a vote without the consent of the ruling party. <p>50 Score Criteria: The opposition party has influence on the proceeding of the legislature, but it is limited in scope. The opposition\'s ability to force votes or publicly debate certain topics may be limited. <p>0 Score Criteria: The opposition party has only token participation in the legislature\'s proceedings and cannot advance legislation or force a debate.$

Comments: Ecuador is a country characterized by the political uncertainty. Rafael Correa assumed the presidency January of 2007 and the central plan of his government was to set up a Constituent Assembly. This Assembly must carry out reforms to the current Constitution. To carry out this Constituent Assembly the citizenship must be consulted in a Popular Consultation. To authorize the Popular Consultation, the government had to face opposition parties in the National Congress. These confrontations between the legislative branch and the executive branch caused a political crisis in the country.

The president Rafael Correa didn't have a political party in the National Congress, because he didn't throw candidates to deputys election. Patriotic Society Party (PSP -- Partido Sociedad Patriótica) and the National Action Institutional Renewal Party (PRIAN -- Partido Renovador Institucional Accion Nacional) are the biggest political forces in the National Congress. But Ecuador has a particular system of elections; the minorities are represented in the National Congress.

References: www.elcomercio.com (20 de Diciembre de 2006) Una mayoría anticonstituyente se forja

www.elcomercio.com (21 de Octubre de 2006) PRIAN y Sociedad Patriótica tendrían mayoría en el Congreso

www.elcomercio.com (22 de Octubre de 2006) Nueva mayoría para el Congreso,

Peer Review Comments: In Ecuador's democratic history, opposition parties have always had representation in Congress and in fact, there has been an historic power struggle between congressional and executive power. However, congress's performance indicates that it has greater and more effective links to the private sector's interests.

Peer Review Comments: Most of the opposition party lawmakers elected in November 2006 (57 of 100) were disqualified from holding office in January 2007 and were replaced by substitutes who had been immediately recruited in a secret session to support the government, thus betraying the parties that sponsored them. Prior to this, there were many opposition parties in the Congress. The situation that will be created by the Constitutional Assembly will no doubt affect this in ways not now predictable.