This past Sunday, 30 September, Ecuadorians elected 130 members of
the Constituent Assembly (CA).

IOM participated as an International Observer for the Out of
Country Voting (OCV) part of the election. IOM was present in
cities with high numbers of registered voters: Madrid, Barcelona
and Murcia in Spain; Milan and Rome in Italy; Santiago in Chile;
Caracas in Venezuela; New York and New Jersey in the United
States.

The observation process took place on the day of the elections.
IOM observers in all cities agreed that the process in general
terms was successfully undertaken, guaranteeing the right of
migrants to vote outside of their country. However, the OCV
registered a high percentage of absenteeism.  The Supreme
Electoral Tribunal (SET) will announce the official results of the
OCV on 16 October.

According to a Parallel Voting Tabulation (PVT) conducted by the
local NGO, Citizen Participation “Acuerdo País”
the Governmental Movement achieved at least 70 of 130 seats in the
National Assembly.

The CA will have a maximum of 240 days to draft a new
Constitution. A total of 149 political parties and movements took
part in the elections.

This marks the second time that IOM acted as an official
observer for the voting process for Ecuadorians living abroad. The
objective of the observation was to support the democratic
evolution of Ecuador’s recently established out-of-country
voting process, in order to guarantee the rights of Ecuadorians
living abroad.

It is estimated that there are approximately two million
Ecuadorians living abroad. Of that number, 152,000 were registered
to vote.

For further information please contact:

Ana María Guzmán

IOM Quito

Tel: +593 2 22 53 948 to 49

E-mail: "mailto:aguzman@oim.org.ec" target="_blank" title=
"">aguzman@oim.org.ec