QUITO (Reuters) – Eight candidates have registered to run in Ecuador’s presidential elections in August, the electoral court said on Wednesday, kicking off a campaign to fill the spot to be left early by current President Guillermo Lasso.
Ecuadoreans will hit the polls on Aug. 20 to vote for their new president as well as all members of the 137-seat Congress.
Lasso, in May, dissolved the legislature and cut his term short to avoid impeachment proceedings against him.
Those elected in August will hold office until May 2025, when regularly scheduled elections will take place.
Lasso and his party will not participate in the elections.
Former President Rafael Correa’s Citizen Revolution movement entered politician Luisa Gonzalez, who has said that if she wins the presidency, she will call a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the Constitution.
Conservative Social Christian Party (PSC), which joined in impeachment proceedings against Lasso, backed 40-year-old Jan Topic, a soldier-turned-businessman who says his military experience lends itself to fighting crime and drug gangs.
Indigenous leader Yaku Perez will represent a political coalition in his second run for the presidency. In 2021, Perez surprised with turn-out on his plan to fight oil and mining activities in the country.
Former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner, who resigned in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged Ecuadorean cities, will also run.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
