VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHQT #0283/01 1131338
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 231338Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY QUITO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0283
INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 8105
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 4151
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 3510
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ APR LIMA 3162
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL 4275

C O N F I D E N T I A L QUITO 000283 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS 
TAGS: PGOV KPLS OAS EC
SUBJECT: COUNTDOWN TO ELECTIONS; PRESIDENT'S RACE FOREGONE 
CONCLUSION 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Heather Hodges for reason 1.4 (D) 
 
¶1. (SB...




id: 203768
date: 4/23/2009 13:38
refid: 09QUITO283
origin: Embassy Quito
classification: CONFIDENTIAL
destination: 
header:
VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHQT #0283/01 1131338
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 231338Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY QUITO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0283
INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 8105
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 4151
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 3510
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ APR LIMA 3162
RUEHGL/AMCONSUL GUAYAQUIL 4275


----------------- header ends ----------------

C O N F I D E N T I A L QUITO 000283 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS 
TAGS: PGOV KPLS OAS EC
SUBJECT: COUNTDOWN TO ELECTIONS; PRESIDENT'S RACE FOREGONE 
CONCLUSION 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Heather Hodges for reason 1.4 (D) 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  With three days remaining before the 
April 26 elections, President Correa sits comfortably ahead 
of all other candidates, with polls showing him with enough 
votes for a first-round win.  Recently arrived 
international election observation teams have reported 
concern with how the lack of regulation of government 
propaganda has played to the favor of the incumbent 
government; however, fraud on election day is unlikely. 
Overall, the presidential campaign has been lackluster, 
with little real debate (face to face or otherwise) on 
policy issues.  Key outcomes to watch are the size of 
Correa's margin, and the National Assembly and Quito 
mayoral race results.  End Summary. 
 
LAST-MINUTE BLUNDER AND CAMPAIGN ADJUSTMENTS 
 
¶2. (SBU) Three opposition political parties were omitted in 
sample city council ballots for Ecuador's largest city of 
Guayaquil on the Sunday preceding the elections.  The party 
lists missing were the New Option movement, the Patriotic 
Society Party, and most notably, Guayaquil mayor and 
leading candidate Jaime Nebot's Social Christian Party and 
Warrior Material Movement alliance.  The National Electoral 
Council took responsibility for the error and the ballot 
was reprinted in El Universo, the newspaper in which the 
faulty ballot was originally published.  However, the 
reprinted sample ballot appeared in a small space on an 
inside page of the newspaper, while a GOE advertisement 
praising the government's stewardship of the economy took 
up the prominent back page of the paper. 
 
¶3. (SBU) On April 16, the National Electoral Council 
announced that Correa would be prohibited from transmitting 
his weekly radio and TV address the Saturday before 
elections, in accordance with electoral rule that no 
candidate may make public appearances, or activities with 
"proselytizing" characteristics between April 23 and 27. 
This is on the heels of a National Electoral Council 
decision in late March to fine Correa $650 for criticizing 
his presidential opponents during his weekly public address 
and its threat to suspend the programs completely if he 
made any more references to other candidates.  After a 
public exchange of critical words with the Council, Correa 
and his Proud and Sovereign Fatherland (PAIS) movement 
submitted an official appeal to the Electoral Disputes 
Tribunal on April 6, and Correa at least avoided referring 
to his opponents by name during his April 11 address.  The 
appeal, along with the March 12 appeal of the "Hey Jude" 
fine, is still awaiting a ruling from the Tribunal. 
 
NEW VOTERS EFFECT 
 
¶4. (SBU) New segments of the population, totaling almost 
one million of 10.5 million voters expected overall, will 
be given the opportunity to vote in the elections as 
mandated by the new constitution.  Youth between the ages 
of 16 and 18, Ecuadorians residing outside of Ecuador, 
foreigners residing legally within Ecuador, military and 
police, and inmates still awaiting sentences are entitled 
to go to the polling booths for the first time on April 
¶26.  Although not obligatory, over half a million youths 
were registered, followed by 185,000 external Ecuadorians, 
nearly 100,000 military and police officers, over 80,000 
non-Ecuadorians with at least five years of legal residence 
in the country, and 2,700 inmates.  The local NGO, Citizen 
Participation has expressed concern with potential voting 
bias among youths, whose voter education was suspected to 
be influenced by the leftist teachers' union, and the 
military and police, whose independence from the government 
has been questioned in light of recent increases in their 
government benefits. 
 
POLLS IN CORREA'S FAVOR 
 
¶5. (SBU) According to all three major polls, Correa has the 
necessary 40% of the total votes, plus 10% more than the 
runner-up, to win the presidency in the first round.  Since 
release of polling data was forbidden starting 20 days 
before the election, the latest published data is from late 
March and early April.  At that time, Correa continued to 
lead the next closest presidential candidate by 32, 39 and 
41 points, according to polling firms Market, CEDATOS and 
Santiago Perez, respectively, and hovered around the 50% 
total vote mark by all three.  It is likely that Correa 
 
will cinch the Presidency in the first round, with former 
president Lucio Gutierrez and banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa 
trailing far behind. 
 
PRESIDENTIAL WIN, BUT NOT A CLEAN SWEEP 
 
¶6. (SBU) Unlike the expected PAIS presidential victory, 
National Assembly seats and local offices continue to be 
hotly contested.  According to pollster Santiago Perez's 
data from April 5, PAIS is slated to win a slight majority 
within the legislature (53%), but not enough to block the 
opposition from taking initial actions to remove cabinet 
members.  This outcome would mark a significant decrease 
from the 61% of assembly seats they currently hold in the 
temporary legislature.  PAIS's showing in the CEDATOS poll 
from March 22 is much lower, with only 30%, but 46% 
undecided. 
 
¶7. (SBU) At the municipal level, running as part of 
Correa's PAIS movement has not necessarily proven to be the 
golden ticket for local PAIS candidates.  The race for the 
mayor of Quito continues to be one of the closest, with the 
PAIS candidate Augusto Barrera edging out Antonio Ricaurte 
38% to 29% and 31% to 27%, according to Market and CEDATOS 
respectively.  Current mayor of Guayaquil Jaime Nebot 
continues to enjoy a comfortable lead, with nearly 70% of 
the vote.  In the province of El Oro where Correa has a 63% 
approval rating, the PAIS mayoral candidate for the 
provincial capital only has 20% support, compared to the 
opposition candidate's 70%. 
 
CONCERNS SURFACE FROM PRE-ELECTION OBSERVATION 
 
¶8. (SBU) The two principal international observation 
missions by the European Union and the Organization of 
American States have both expressed concerns during the 
pre-election week with the limited training and resources 
for the new and controversial intermediate counting centers 
(juntas intermedias).  Another major issue raised has been 
the lack of clarity in the electoral public finance 
legislation that has allowed excessive usage of official 
government publicity.  One example occurred on the April 21 
weekly public service announcement by the GOE which was 
essentially a 10-minute defense of the new criminal code 
that has been openly critized by the opposition in the 
latter half of the campaign.  According to Citizen 
Participation, Correa's official campaign has only spent 
$300,235 of publically financed election money as of April 
17; however, the total amount of government publicity 
financed during the same period reached over $2 million 
dollars.  This corresponds to almost 2300 minutes of extra 
air time, or over four times the amount of the next highest 
air time of any presidential candidate. 
 
¶9. (SBU) USG support for this year's election totals over 
half a million dollars.  The OAS mission received $225,000 
from the USOAS, and there will be nine U.S. Embassy and 
Consulate volunteer observers.  USAID is providing a total 
of $269,000 of technical assistance to the GOE National 
Electoral Council to implement a country-wide 
voters-with-disabilities campaign and to the Electoral 
Disputes Tribunal to increase their institutional capacity 
through trainings and operational support.  The major 
domestic observation effort by USAID-supported NGO Citizen 
Participation, will have 8,000 observers in all 24 
provinces to monitor election-day proceedings.  Citizen 
Participation will also conduct a quick count of the 
presidential and assembly races that will be produced 
parallel to the official GOE count. 
 
COMMENT 
 
¶10. (C) A combination of election fatigue and universal 
acceptance of another four years of a Correa presidency has 
made for an uninteresting election at the national level. 
The lack of new ideas amongst the other presidential 
hopefuls, or any sincere attempt to address issues of 
concern, has left the Ecuadorian electorate with no 
alternative to the status quo.  The local campaign races 
have proven to be more dynamic, and it is likely that any 
substantial opposition to a future Correa administration 
will come from local government leaders. 
HODGES 

=======================CABLE ENDS============================