Re-election without limitations:

the hidden face of subnational power in Ecuador

Abstract

This article constitutes a case study that seeks -from a historical perspective- to describe and analyze the use and "abuse" of unrestricted re-election by several local leaders who have occupied some Prefectures and Mayoralties of the provincial capitals in Ecuador for several decades, taking as reference five consecutive sectional elections that were held for 19 years (2004-2023), a time in which there was also a presidential overthrow (2005), a new Constitution was approved (2008) and five heads of state followed one another. . As a hypothesis, this work sustains that from the very institutional design -approved in the popular consultation of 1994 and which was translated into the 1998 Constitution- an undemocratic political subsystem was legitimized at the subnational level, characterized by the monopolization of electoral competition in a few personalist leaders, who perpetuated themselves in power, blocking the principle of alternation. But this work also seeks to question the fact that a good part of public opinion, as well as the existing bibliography, has focused -almost exclusively- on questioning the "authoritarian" and "populist" practices of the presidents or their intentions to be reelected, but very little has been said about the incidence that these have had for Ecuadorian democracy at the local level.