Ecuador’s Democracy Cannot Be Suspended

On 17 July, Ecuador’s Tribunal Contencioso Electoral (TCE), the court responsible for resolving electoral disputes, provisionally suspended Acción Movilizadora Independiente Generando Oportunidades (AMIGO), a small liberal party, for nine months.

The decision came only hours before the deadline for political organisations to register electoral alliances and followed a complaint submitted by Acting Attorney General Carlos Leonardo Alarcón.

AMIGO had agreed to provide an electoral vehicle for candidates from Revolución Ciudadana (RC5), Ecuador’s largest opposition party, after the TCE suspended RC5 for nine months in March, also at the request of the Attorney General.

The successive suspension of Revolución Ciudadana and the party through which its candidates sought to stand undermines the integrity of the electoral process. It threatens to deny millions of Ecuadorians a meaningful political choice and raises serious questions about due process, institutional independence and the equal application of electoral law.

These measures follow the rejection of all four proposals advanced by President Daniel Noboa in the November 2025 referendum, including plans to permit foreign military bases and begin a process to rewrite the constitution. They also form part of a wider pattern of judicial and administrative proceedings against opposition parties, elected officials and candidates.

Since 2017, Revolución Ciudadana and its leaders have faced repeated prosecutions, disqualifications and restrictions on political participation. The movement has nevertheless continued to contest elections and pursue legal remedies. Its presidential candidate received more than 44 per cent of the vote in April 2025. An election cannot be democratic if a principal opposition force is repeatedly denied a viable path to the ballot.

We call on international observers to monitor the entire electoral cycle, including candidate registration, access to legal remedies, the conduct of electoral and judicial institutions, and the ability of all political forces to campaign freely.

We call on Ecuador’s authorities to guarantee due process and effective political participation; ensure that any restriction of electoral rights is subject to timely appeal and remedy; and preserve political pluralism. Judicial and administrative powers must not be used to determine which political forces Ecuadorians are permitted to support.

The Progressive International Observatory will continue to monitor developments in Ecuador and report on threats to the integrity of the electoral process.