The first stumbling block for the Executive has been to govern without the backing of the Assembly, while the streets are experiencing a wave of demonstrations that include acts of vandalism never seen before and a rampant increase in crime and violence.

For the government, vaccination has become a wall that has been containing the demands of the different social sectors. But the lack of answers to their demands could lead the country to a new social explosion.

Do electoral debates change voting preferences or are they spaces of symbolic dispute in public opinion without any effect? Debates have a symbolic power that no one tests. The confrontation of ideas enriches public deliberation and demands from the candidates a better preparation to reach the voters.

Ecuador is the first country in Latin America to go to the polls this year. It is a general election marked by a worn-out government, a new outbreak of the pandemic, a budding vaccination process, economic crisis and political fragmentation.