He National Electoral Council (CNE) decided to repeat the elections for foreign and national deputies in constituencies abroad, following problems with telematic voting. This decision implies that the composition of the Assembly, as reflected in the first results, could change, benefiting or detrimental to certain political groups.

The main opponents of this measure are members of the movement It builds and those who promote it are the correístas.

There Citizen revolution (RC) is the political movement that has shown the greatest interest in repeating the elections.

In 2021, they won all six seats, two for each constituency: the United States and Canada; Europe, Oceania and Asia; and Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Taking into account the results of the early elections, these six seats were distributed between the RC and construction, three for each.

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If they repeat elections You can modify this composition and register the second of any of these lists or even that of another movement or party.

As soon as the resolution of the CNE has been known, build He indicated that he would take legal action in the country and even before international bodies. They are afraid of losing some of the seats they occupied.

Andrea Ledesma, candidate for this Political organization in the United States and Canada constituencyclaims that she is already elected to the Assembly and that her efforts are not focused on campaigning for new elections, but on respecting the popular will expressed on 20 August.

The CNE also decided that repeat in the abroad THE elections of members of the National AssemblyThe 15 positions that had been determined would therefore be modified.

Following Webster’s method of allocating seats, the candidate at risk is Lucio Gutiérrez for the Patriotic Society Party.

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He believes that the CNE guarantees neither transparency nor credibility. “Then they will say that 300,000 Ecuadorians voted and all the seats are taken by the correístas,” Gutiérrez says. This party will also present a challenge.

On the other hand, the correísmo will try to include its seventh on the list, Liliana Durán.

De Construye doubts that the CNE will repeat the elections, even in the constituency in which all the registered voters voted.

They refer to Latin America, Caribbean and Africa where the more than 10,000 authorized people cast their vote.

If the same relationship is established, in the United States and Canada more than 70% of those registered for telematic voting voted. In this case, proposes the candidate Ledesma, the vote could be allowed to those who were unable to do so on August 20, without affecting the will of those who have already elected.

Also check: Six constituency seats are in contention abroad

The biggest problem lies in Europe, Asia and Oceania, where only 30% of registered voters voted. There, the Citizen Revolution hopes that its candidate will take advantage of it Esther Cuesta.

The decision of CNE advisers is questioned by some electoral experts and respected by others, even if all agree that the institution should have ensure an adequate telematic voting process.

For Carlos Aguinaga, former president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE)there is not enough legal support to declare the elections null and void.

Moreover, he considers that the elements have not been presented to prove that the attacks against the computer system than the CNE alleged.

On the other hand, Aguinaga explains that we do not know how many people filed a formal complaint with the election authoritybecause there is no way to prove that the alerts that circulated on social networks could or could not be part of an induced campaign.

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Instead, Esteban Ron, Dean of UISEK Faculty of Social and Legal Sciencesbelieves that the CNE must guarantee the participation of Ecuadorians abroad and that there should be no doubt as to whether the vote that a person has recorded has been attributed to his candidate or to his list.

Explain that the norm states that elections must be repeated each time the the invalidity of the vote affects at least 30% of the councils receiving the vote (JRE), when it affects the final results of the election. And even if there is no JRE abroad, the votes are decisive for the allocation of seats in the Assembly.

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On June 30, 2023, the CNE signed the contract for the accompaniment, accompaniment and management service for telematic voting.

Eduardo Arias signed this contract, for a total amount of USD 847 185.77, VAT included, respecting “all the technical, legal and economic requirements established in the specifications, and having obtained a score of 89.90 points according to the procedure applied for the call for tenders for the services”, according to a CNE report.

In this document, certain shortcomings of the company are pointed out, for example the lack of support or the non-existence of the actions necessary to restore the service.

It is also concluded that the supplier “does not guarantee safety availability and consistency of information”. For this reason, it is recommended do not use their services, until the faults can be completely corrected.

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Diana Atamaint, President of the Electoral Function, he had guaranteed that, despite the vulnerabilities of the system, the votes would have taken place safely. From now on, he contradicts himself when he considers it appropriate to repeat the votes.

On the other hand, this organization must repeat the elections with the risk that problems reappear during the telematic vote.

An alternative is for the vote to be done in person, as has happened in other elections; however, the deadlines are limited and this budget is not envisaged.

Moreover, the idea of telematic voting is that citizens can enjoy this right without having to travel long distances to reach established places.

The elected members of the Assembly have already announced that the political trial of the CNE advisers was also envisaged as part of their control agenda.