NORTHERN BORDER PROVINCES TILTING TOWARD ROLDOS

UNCLAS QUITO 002094 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL EC SUBJECT: NORTHERN BORDER PROVINCES TILTING TOWARD ROLDOS REF: QUITO 001588 ¶1. (U) Summary: The northern provinces of Imbabura and Carchi are strongholds of the Democratic Left (ID) party and, in Imbabura, the indigenous movement. Predictably, Leon Roldos is the acknowledged front runner in presidential elections. There is little agreement among key actors over which presidential contender follows Roldos, reflecting provincial politics fractured between indigenous groups and other national parties and local movements, and widespread rural poverty fueling homegrown political populism. During a recent visit, we also heard differing views of the status of electoral preparations and the potential for electoral fraud. End Summary. Background -------------- ¶2. (U) PolOffs continued the Embassy's democracy outreach (see Reftel) with visits to the central highland and northern border provinces of Imbabura and Carchi on August 8-10. PolOffs met with members of the press, local government officials, NGOs and party leaders. In all private and public events, PolOffs stressed the importance of ensuring free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections and highlighted USG support to the region. ¶3. (U) Every person we spoke with in Carchi province (which borders Colombia) painted a depressing view of deteriorating social and economic conditions in the province. Officials believe rampant illegal Colombian immigration uniformly brings crime and poverty to Carchi. Dollarization was repeatedly blamed for making Ecuadorian goods and labor more expensive than Colombian goods and labor (note: Ecuadorian gasoline, however, is still much cheaper). Extortion in the form of a "tax" from anonymous criminal elements has become rampant and largely unreported. There is little investment or capital; four of seven banks have closed. Ecuadorians are fleeing the province. Some officials believe the international community has forgotten the province, complaining that Cotacachi municipality, in Imbabura province, has support from 60 NGOS while Tulcan only has one. When PolOffs pointed out specific significant projects funded by USAID in Carchi, Tulcan municipal officials said they had thought the programs were funded by the United Nations. Former general and Carchi Prefect Rene Yandun (ID) asserted that the hopelessness, lack of security and emptying province pose a substantial risk to Ecuador's national security. ¶4. (U) Imbabura officials were a bit more upbeat than their counterparts in Carchi. They acknowledged USG assistance in many areas. The populist themes of decentralization, employment and corruption, were all common refrains, but with little in the way of substantive proposals. The prefect (U.S. governor-equivalent) said that personality, more than ideology, was the major issue in the elections. Electoral Trends -------------- ¶5. (U) Imbabura is a mountainous province with a rural indigenous population of approximately 40% of its 344,000 inhabitants. It is home to the major highland indigenous cities of Otavalo and Cotacachi, which draw many tourists for their local attractions and handicrafts. Eleven percent of the population is Afro-Ecuadorian, concentrated mostly in the Chota valley area, which produced most of the members of Ecuador's very successful World Cup national soccer team. All agree Democratic Left (ID) party machinery is strong; however, election results contradict the conventional wisdom. A popular ID defector allied with the PRIAN (Roldosista Institutional Renewal Party) to win the province-wide prefecture (U.S. governor-equivalent) in 2004. His ID challenger came in second and the indigenous Pachakutik (MUPP-NP) candidate a distant third. None of Imbabura's current congressional deputies are ID: one is Pachakutik, one is presidential candidate for the Democratic Revindication Movement (MRD) Marco Proano, and the other deputy is a one man political party. The province's 2002 presidential returns were consistent with Ecuador as a whole, giving 26% of the vote to Lucio Gutierrez and 23% to Alvaro Noboa in the first round and electing Gutierrez resoundingly in the second. ¶6. (U) The northern border province of Carchi is less populous and less indigenous than Imbabura and more reliably an ID stronghold. Of its 153,000 inhabitants, none are rural indigenous, although 11% are Afro-Ecuadorian (again from the Chota valley area, which forms the border between the two provinces). In the prefecture race of 2004, the ID candidate handily beat his challenger (who formed an alliance of five little known parties) 41% to 20%. The mayor of Tulcan, the only principal urban area, located on the border with Colombia, also hails from the ID. In the presidential elections, however, the top vote-getter in the first round was coastal populist Alvaro Noboa with 29%. The ID candidate, Rodrigo Borja, came in second with 23%. A local political entity, the Independent Work and Democracy Movement (MITD),has recently become the main competitor of the ID in Carchi province. Election Officials Sanguine about Fraud -------------- ¶7. (U) Imbabura electoral, government and party officials were generally satisfied with electoral preparations. Electoral tribunal officials did not express any needs or worries about the process and welcomed the possible participation in their province of international observers. They proudly described a rural democracy education drive which presented seminars in remote villages to voters. Electoral officials also claimed a pilot electronic vote project tested in Otavalo in 2004 had been a great success. Unfortunately, due to a scheduling conflict with elections in Brazil, electronic voting would not take place this year as it would rely on Brazilian machinery. No official we spoke to believed electoral fraud was likely. ¶8. (U) Carchi officials were similarly positive about the pace of preparations and dismissive of any possibility for fraud, highlighting their own rural outreach efforts and a democracy library they hoped would become more interactive. They requested a photocopier and computers for the library and like their neighbors in Imbabura, welcomed the prospect of international election observers. Election Watchdog Groups More Concerned -------------- ¶9. (U) Meanwhile, the major NGO operating in the two provinces, Citizen Participation (PC),had a much more pessimistic view of election preparations and the opportunities for fraud. In both provinces, PC reported a significant risk of fraud, supplying anecdotes from observations in the 2004 municipal elections. One volunteer who had counted the ballots in one polling station later learned that a much different number appeared in the final tally. Another volunteer caught an election worker surreptitiously marking votes that had been turned in blank. One enterprising candidate in Imbabura had supplied rural voters with a left rubber boot before the election and promised to deliver the right boots after he won. The Imbabura PC representative ridiculed the electoral tribunal's rural democracy seminars; he heard that several passed unattended. PC representatives in both provinces said they had nearly ecruited all the volunteers they needed for their own observation efforts. ¶10. (U) In Carchi province, the leaders of the local political movement, MITD, expressed concern that they might suffer as a result of their lack of representation on the provincial tribunal, despite being the second most powerful party in the province. (Note: by law, the top seven political parties at the national level in the last elections are represented on the tribunals. Only parties, not movements, are represented.) Female Candidate Quota Open to Interpretation -------------- ¶11. (U) Although no one we met openly opposed the 45% quota for female candidates in this election, electoral tribunal officials from both provinces said the rule was open to interpretation (as to how to alternate between male and females on candidate lists). Some electoral officials claimed that many women are not interested in participating as political candidates. The Cotacachi municipal council VP, Patricia Espinoza, vehemently disagreed with that view. She believed the quota rule would be widely misapplied in Ecuador, hurting women's representation. For example, some parties would place women low on their candidate lists, virtually ruling out their prospects for election. Espinoza said she is active in a growing movement of female politicians who are pressing national election authorities to properly implement the quota. Presidential Predictions Varied -------------- ¶12. (SBU) The only consistent prediction for the upcoming elections was agreement that the ID as a party and Leon Roldos as its supported candidate would do well in both provinces. In Carchi, most believed the MITD will come in second to the ID in both presidential and congressional balloting. Cynthia Viteri (PSC) and Rafael Correa (PAIS) are the only candidates who have already campaigned in Carchi thus far. (Note: the formal campaign period opens on August 29.) MITD leaders endorsed Viteri during her visit. ¶13. (SBU) In Imbabura, the PRIAN prefect claimed Noboa and Roldos were leading the presidential sweepstakes and that congressional seats would be divided among their followers. The ID congressional candidate in Imbabura, however, believed that Rafael Correa was the current leader, followed by Roldos. He was adamant that Cynthia Viteri and Alvaro Noboa were weak in Imbabura and the congressional seats would be split between the ID, Correa's PAIS and the Ecuadorian Roldosista Party (PRE - despite the name, not linked to Roldos). Cotacachi municipal council VP Espinoza, whose municipality is heavily indigenous and pro-Pachakutik, lamented the fracturing of the leftist vote, saying Pachakutik was poised at the brink of disaster. Public Outreach Events -------------- ¶14. (U) PolOff took questions from the press in both Carchi and Imbabura and gave a radio interview in Imbabura on August ¶10. Questions from the press focused on the reason for the visit and how the USG views preparations for elections. The radio interview covered a broad range of topics. We emphasized USG wishes to help strengthen democracy in Ecuador, our broad relationship beyond commercial issues and stressed our theme for these outreach visits: vote and vote wisely. Comment -------------- ¶15. (U) Votes from Imbabura and Carchi made up only 3 and 1%, respectively, in the 2002 elections. Though not the most populous region in Ecuador, the visit to this corner of the country highlighted several broader trends. Social and economic woes underlie these elections in many parts of the country, fueling populist appeals. While national parties reach these parts of the country, often local movements or personalities sway the voters more. The ID and Roldos will likely do well in this region but fractured politics and socio-economic problems will challenge any candidate who wins. JEWELL