Quito: The presidential candidate Andrés Arauz denounced the ?rude interference and intervention? of the Comptroller’s Office and the Office of the Prosecutor of Ecuador in the electoral process, Radio Habana Cuba publishes.
The candidate for the progressive alliance Unión por la Esperanza (Unes) warned of plans to modify the date or suspend the ballot, scheduled for April 11, when he will contest the presidency with Guillermo Lasso, representative of the center-right movement CREO.
He rejected and criticized the announcements by the State Comptroller General and the State Attorney General’s Office to conduct an audit and open an investigation into the electoral process, when the second electoral round has not yet taken place.
“What the Comptroller’s Office communicated yesterday with its intention to interfere with audits in the middle of the electoral process, and even more serious, the diligence requested by the Prosecutor’s Office to carry out an expertise on the computer system in the middle of the electoral process must be clearly seen as an interference and intervention in the electoral process, which is clearly illegal?, Arauz criticized.
Arauz has rejected with “absolute forcefulness” the “rude interference and intromission” of other State institutions in the electoral process and has recalled that there is a “single electoral authority” in the South American country.
The UNES candidate has urged the Contentious Electoral Tribunal (TCE) to act “expeditiously” and to “apply the law with the appropriate sanctions in the face of this interference and in the face of this interference in the electoral process.”
In turn, in a Twitter post on the same day, Lasso has denounced the intervention of both institutions to oversee the work of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador in the middle of the electoral process. “Now is not the time to defend individuals or private interests, and we must strengthen democracy” in the country, he has insisted.
At the same time, the electoral observation of the Organization of American States (OAS) has expressed concern about the interference of these institutions “outside” the electoral function that “hinder” a “correct” electoral process.
Ecuador will hold the second round of the presidential elections on April 11 and the winner will take office on May 24 to govern the period 2021-2025.