Ecuador: Correa's Sister, Possible Candidate for Vice President by Popular Demand

“There are several options, there is Carlos Rabascall, and my sister’s name is gaining popularity as a popular demand, because people are outraged,” said the former Ecuadorian president in an interview with Spanish news agency Efe.

The left-wing Citizen Revolution (RC) movement is studying the convenience of presenting Pierina Correa, sister of former president Rafael Correa, as a candidate for the Vice-presidency of Ecuador in the 2021 elections, as an “act of protest” .

About two weeks ago, Correa, who led Ecuador between 2007 and 2017, was elected in the primaries as a candidate for vice president by the Centro Democrático party, a nominal platform with which he presented his candidacy given the impossibility of doing so under his own party due to all sorts of Lenin Moreno’s government maneuvers.

But the rejection of a Court of Cassation on Monday to annul the sentence for bribery that he had in the first and second instance in the bribes case 2012-2016 will make it impossible for him to finalize that candidacy, in which he accompanied the young politician Andrés Arauz as a candidate for the Presidency, a maneuver denounced by many as an anti-democratic move to avoid defeat in the upcoming elections, also known as “lawfare.”

“They eliminated Correa, then Arauz-Correa again,” he said.

And he explains that although he has always “been contrary to political dynasties”, the situation is that “they do not leave alternatives” and that is why the search and analysis of the registration process of the new binomial continues, according to the conditions that arise.

“We have until the 18th in theory. The sentence is not even executed yet,” he recalls about an administrative process before the Court of Cassation that allows appeals for “clarification” and “expansion”, mere technical phases.

“We are seeing what is best, whether to resign before registering and being replaced, or waiting for disqualification,” he stressed.

Correa, who has resided in Belgium since 2017 with his Belgium citizen wife and kids, assures that decisions are taken in accordance with the evolution of “political” and “judicial” circumstances and in the face of the requirements that the National Electoral Council (CNE) dictates.

Meanwhile, partisan organizations are also evaluating the choice of a candidate, whose profile, by political tradition in the country, must correspond in the first case to being from the coastal area, since Arauz is from the Sierra (Quito).

“You can name whoever it is, we have no restrictions on that. The only essential thing is that it be from the Coast because of the regional balance,” he argued.

And in addition to those of the journalist Rabascall and his sister Pierina, he mentioned the names of the economist Elsa Viteri, and of the journalist María José de Luca.

“Rabascall is a rather central person who does not generate great resistance. De Luca is a woman with a lot of sympathy, middle class, a journalist, around 40, a very nice person who opens the doors to the middle class. Viteri is an expert in economy, she was my finance minister,” he explained about the candidates being considered.

Asked if he preferred a candidate not directly identified with RC, he considered that it is something to evaluate because although his sister is very identified with the movement, “at this moment it is a vindication.”

“They did this trickery to eliminate Correa; well, here is another Correa and we can vote for Correa,” he concluded.

Elections in Ecuador are called for February 7 and the official registration phase of candidacies will begin on September 17.

So far, in the pre-candidacies phase, 16 pairs have been registered, but it is not expected that all of them will participate in the elections.

Featured image: File photo.

(Panorama)

Translation: OT/JRE