Jaime Durán Barba on the elections in Ecuador: …

The Ecuadorian consultant and political analyst, Jaime Duran Barba, spoke on Saturday of the elections scheduled for April 11 in his country and estimated that the candidate Guillermo Lasso will win by “about five points”. At the same time, he evoked the political situation in Argentina and declared that “Macrismo and Kirchnerism must rethink their projects because otherwise a third force will emerge which will win them”.

In dialogue with AM 750, Durán Barba assured from his department located in Quito, that he is “locked up, hypochondriac and frightened by the pandemic” and estimated that people are going through a moment of change, in which they have become “more autonomous and move on. above institutions “”.

Referring to the elections in Ecuador, the second round of which will be held on April 11, he said that “there are different variables at play” and assured that the national government, led by Lenín Moreno, is “the most unpopular in the history of the country”. “He devoted himself to persecuting Rafael Correa in an absurd way and this helped the candidate of the former president, Andrés Arauz. There has never been a government with so much rejection, nor a government that has devoted itself so much to the persecution of a politician, ”he explained.

“Moreno did terribly wrong, but at the same time people have a complex memory of Correa, who had a wonderful economic time in the country with $ 100 oil, but his temper, his violence and his threats annoyed them. voters. It is the strongest negative element. Correa has 23% support and 65% of people who would never vote for him, ”he added.

Regarding Arauz, who was the winner in the first date at the polls on February 7 with 32.72% of the vote, he said he had run a good campaign in which “being different” worked for him and explained that “if a politician is just like those who lived 30 years ago, there is no future”. “Arauz ran a great campaign and his youth favored him a lot. However, Correa has spoiled his progress, not out of bad faith, but because of his temper, ”he analyzed.

In turn, he argued that “if something very unforeseen does not happen that matters to the voters”, he estimates that the elections will end up winning by about five points Lasso, who was second to the first elections with 19.74% of the vote, followed closely by the indigenous candidate Yaku Pérez, barely 35 tenths less than the banker.

Regarding Yaku Perez, he said that the candidate “did something very strange”, which was “to appear several times playing the saxophone in his videos and dancing in a very western way”. “This gave him a very important entry into the youth and urban sectors of the country. Yaku ended up being a mixture of the indigenous vote and that of 21st century voters, with green ideas. The others have mixed feelings, ”he explained.

After discussing Yaku’s social media strategy, he said it was important to “study click politics” and said that “the subject of the Internet is much more prevalent than academics realize. There was an experience with the former President of Argentina Mauricio Macri when he went to visit an indigenous group and they asked him for a photo to upload to Facebook and he did not understand how he was going to do it. Now indigenous children have their phones and surf the networks.

Later, speaking of the political situation in Argentina, Durán Barba declared that the discussion in our country is “very late” and assured that “Macrismo and Kirchnerism must rethink their projects because otherwise a third force will appear which will sweep them away. “.

“Neither Macrism nor Kirchnerism have been reformulated. I think that if they do not rethink their situation, a third group will join them who will sweep them away, ”he assured. And he questioned whether the country “is still discussing things from the 20th century”. “I am not saying that Ecuador is better, but we are very late, very convinced that when the Big Bang happened, the 10 Peronist truths were already in place. It’s not like that, they are much newer, ”he added.

In conclusion, he said that “you have to think of a different world that incorporates technology, without technology killing people, because it is a great progress that also comes with risks. We must reformulate the revolution, the change. The working class will be extinct in 10 years, we have to think about what to do now ”.

Ecuador enters the home stretch of the election campaign this week, in which presidential candidates Arauz and Lasso put aside polarizing rhetoric and partisan ties and incorporated more inclusive proposals to attract the more than four million Ecuadorians who voted for other options in the first round.

In the first nomination to the polls on February 7, Arauz was the winner with 32.72% of the vote, insufficient to avoid the ballot. For his part, Lasso finished second with 19.74%, followed by Pérez, just 35 tenths behind. In fourth place was Xavier Hervas, with 15.68% of the vote.