The national elections in Ecuador are going to a run-off in November between Alvaro Noboa, and a leftist candidate, Rafael Correa. In many Latin American elections there have been concerns over countries backing the presidential candidates of others. For example, Chavez publicly backing Ortega for the upcoming elections in Nicaragua, and going as far as dangling a carrot by suggesting that if Ortega wins they can look forward to signing oil deals. Another example is the tough time US embassies have in refraining from publicly announcing which candidate the US prefers, as well as proof of actually funding certain parties.
In a story today on the Globovision (Venezuela) website, leftist candidate Correa made an excellent point that foreign governments should not "entremeterse" in other countries elections. His example - - Hugo Chavez. Even though Correa is leftest (similar to Chavez, but I don't know to what extent), he threatened to end his friendship with Chavez if he meddles in the upcoming elections. He prefers to win with integrity, rather than through the propaganda and financial battle of outside parties looking for alliances. Perhaps the comments are a strategy on Correa's part, but to his credit it shows integrity to criticize potential friends, rather than remain silent on the issue.
Sovereignty is imperative for elections, and democratic rights should not be compromised for the gain of outside interests.
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Correa saw a decline in the poles when publicly acknowledging sympathy with the Chavez regime during the last weeks of the electoral campaign in Ecuador... That actually hurt his campaign, rather than boost it... Correa thought he would gain from this move, but it was not the case. So now if he wants to win in this runoff, he must play it safe and not go down the "Chavista" road, it seems Ecuadorians don’t like the idea.
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