As the race for the presidency of Ecuador entered its final stages, the desperation on the part of both the neoliberal government of Lenín Moreno and the country’s right-wing political parties to avoid the victory of the Left reached fever pitch.

Since the beginning of the right-wing turn by Moreno’s government and the political persecution of the key leaders of the Citizen Revolution Movement — most notably Rafael Correa and Jorge Glas — countless attempts have been made to prevent the participation in the elections of either Correa himself or any other political leader affiliated with his movement.

This has included preventing the registration of the Citizen Revolution Movement as a political party, a ban on the Fuerza Compromiso Social (FCS) electoral movement used by them to run in the 2019 local elections, a ban on Correa running as a vice presidential candidate, and several attempts to prevent the registration of the Andrés Arauz-Carlos Rabascall presidential ticket. Although these attempts at blocking the reemergence of the Left on the political landscape ultimately failed, the electoral process itself has come under threat.