Ecuador to hold elections and popular consultation on oil exploitation on the same day

The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador proposed to unify the date of the early presidential elections and the popular consultation on oil exploitation in a block of the Yasuní National Park, located in the Amazon.

“To guarantee political participation and optimize technical and economic resources, as CNE Plenary, we approved the report that recommends requesting the Constitutional Court [CC] to unify the polling day for early elections and the Yasuní popular consultation,” the CNE reported on Twitter.

The date for the first round of elections will be next August 20, according to the tentative calendar announced by the CNE at the beginning of the election process to choose the new presidential binomial and the 137 members of the National Assembly (unicameral parliament) that will lead the nation during the period 2023-2025.

This process follows the decree signed last May 17 by President Guillermo Lasso to activate article 148 of the Constitution, referred to as the “cross death”, with which he dissolved the legislative body and ordered the call for early elections.

As foreseen, the CNE will make the official call to the polls next May 24 for the early elections.

The widespread consultation, promoted a decade ago by the citizen collective Yasunidos, seeks to keep in the ground the oil of block 43-ITT (Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini) of the Yasuní National Park, the largest protected reserve of the national, continental territory.

In this area of 1,682,000 hectares, it is estimated that 18.3% of the proven oil reserves of this South American country are in the ground.

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