The silence of the presidential candidates is the result of the planning of the new strategy. While citizens face readjustment, fear and anxiety in the face of the latest events in the country.
The second electoral round began impregnated with euphoria for the results of August 20but with the two protagonists of the run-off already clear, the acts of violence registered in recent weeks and the absence of messages and proposals from the candidates, an electoral silence has been generated on social networks.
This September 5, 2023, a report by Consulting Strategists and Content Manager Ecuador was published in which there is evidence of a drop in the digital discussion about the candidatesof the almost 387 thousand publications in the first week, just a little more than 57 thousand messages had content related to the electoral campaign in the last week.
In the case of Daniel NoboaAfter the election, 231,000 publications were produced about the Acción Democrática Nacional (ADN) candidate, and in the last week only 31 thousand messages were observed in the main social networks of the country (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, among others)..
For her part, the candidate for the Citizen Revolution (RC), Luisa González, fell from 156 thousand publications to 26 thousand messages in the period from August 28 to September 3.
In the first electoral round, the digital discussion had a fundamental impact, especially after the assassination of the candidate Fernando Villavicencio and the presidential debate, which allowed Daniel Noboa to jump from 4% to 23.47% of the electoral preference, in a week.
For the experts and political analysts consulted by LA HORA, the ingredients of this electoral rest can be: fear of acts of violence, the anxiety of citizens due to the lack of proposals, misinformation generated by trolls on social networks, the reconsideration of the voters’ decision and the rearrangement of the candidates’ offer for the ballot.
rearrangement
For the columnist and political analyst, Lolo Echeverría, he electoral rest must be seen from the candidates and then from the citizenry. Indicating that in the case of the presidential candidates it responds to a change in the campaign.
“This is due to the fact that they are preparing the second round, because there were some doubtful elements, for example that the correísmo and anti-correísmo elements no longer work, or that the rise of Noboa is due to non-confrontation”, he narrowed.
For Echeverría, at this moment the campaign teams they should be taking measurements and “establishing a new strategy”.
He added that the debate “correismo vs anticorreismo” will continue to work even if the candidates are not attracted to it. “Of Where is Noboa going to get additional votes if not from anticorreismo, what is being raised is the old struggle between left and right“, advancement.
Regarding the silence of the citizens, he pointed out that “it is the silence of fear, because they do not know what is going to happen and they don’t understand the results of the first round either. On the other hand, violence and insecurity increase and that makes the citizen take refuge in silence”, he alerted.
Reflection
Simón Pachano, political scientist and professor at FLACSO, stressed that At this moment there are no clear elements that allow you to relate the silence of the voters to the fear of political violence and indicated that this could be closer to political reflection.
“It can be assumed that the campaign may have entered into a process of reflection by the people, because basically 43% of the voters voted for the other candidatess and, therefore, that sector of citizens must make a new decision”, he pointed out.
Pachano believes that the more time passes, the decision of the citizens will be “more thoughtful”, looking for how to guide the vote in the second round.
He announced that for the runoff campaign the issue of correísmo against anti-correísmo is raised again. “It’s inevitable and it’s going to strongly influence the decision.”
targeted attacks
The communicator and specialist in digital media, Andrés Jaramillo, highlighted that “a transformation from euphoria to electoral disinterest is observed. People got fed up with the electoral and ask for a breather ”, he notes.
For Jaramillo, the candidates have shown “nothing disruptive”. He warned that there have been attacks directed against a particular candidacy using “trolls and bots” to guide the digital discussion to issues that negatively affect it. (ILS)
Disinformation on the networks
The editor of the Ecuador Checks Portal, Alexis Serrano, called on citizens to avoid being victims of misinformation messages.
He indicated that since August 21 they have detected that the campaign for disinformation on social networks has changed “completely.” “Disinformation networks are now targeting the candidate Daniel Noboa and the trend has continued,” he warned..
He stressed that so far they have made a review of 23 contents that have been disseminated through disinformation networks, “of these eight have been false, six misleading, three true and the rest are inaccurate or satires,” he said.
