“My vote will be ‘No’ across the board”: Alvaro Noboa



Guayaquil Desk
Guayaquil

The leader and founder of the National Institutional Renovation Action Party (Prian) Alvaro Noboa, reappeared on the political scene this afternoon. He announced that his vote will be across the board for the “No” in the referendum this Saturday.

“My vote is ‘No’ because, like all Ecuadorians, I am sick of the arrogance. I vote no in rejection of the poverty, the crime and the wrongdoing,” stated Noboa, whose last appearance was this past February in regards to the proceedings carried out by Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

During the press conference that took place in his home, in the Del Rio neighborhood on the Samborondón highway, he raised doubts regarding the actions of the National Electoral Council (CNE) “which adheres to the Regime, for which I consider this to not be a democratic election”.

He based his commentary on the fact that the CNE has declared President Rafael Correa to be its political subject. “To us (the Prian) they have granted a space this big (indicating a tiny space with his thumb and index finger). There is total control. Democracy is lacking in this election. It cannot be that the Chief of State can campaign for hours and hours in interviews and every kind of advertisement, while we are given a publicity space that is practically over in one day.”

Noboa said that he asks himself the same question as many Ecuadorians do regarding the possibility that there will once again be electoral fraud, as in 1998, when, according to him, he was stripped of the Presidency of the Republic. In this sense, he stated that on Monday, “like good Ecuadorians we will show what our position is as to whether fraud has been committed in this election.

Regarding his position on voting no across the board, he said that that has been his custom and that of the people that vote for him. “Sometimes they put good questions and others that are bad in order to confuse things and in that way achieve a general sympathy.”

In this sense he stated, for example, to agree with the separation of powers but that, in this referendum, the only thing that they are looking to achieve is to confuse the people with cockfights and casinos, or the issue of Social Security. “But the only thing that they are really interested in is taking the courts and, in that, it can’t be in any way called democracy.”

He revealed himself as being a firm defender of worker’s rights and that everyone should be insured, although he did anticipate he would nevertheless vote no across the board to the ten questions.

In regard to the question of unverified private enrichment, Noboa stated that a referendum was unnecessary in order to sanction that, given that there are existent laws in Ecuador.