Campaign trail

 

What you see along the campaign trail reminds you of why you are running for political office.

My Ecuadorian photographer friend, Guillermo Granja, invited me to come down and work on the campaign of a woman running for provincial head (think governor of a state).  Paola Pabon is from the same party as the former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa.  I had photographed him ten years ago when Peru invaded Ecuador (after oil was discovered along the border) and when the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, had come to Quito.  I saw how Correa loved the people and how the     indigenous people loved him.

Paola and Guillermo

But I had a question about why he had opened up Yasuni National Park for oil exploration.  Guillermo explained to me that Peru was stealing the oil any way by horizontal drilling.  

The current president of Ecuador was Correa's vice-president.  Moreno turned against the people when he saw political advantage in serving the established business interest (think descendants of the Spanish elite.)

So when Correa's party wanted to run candidates for office, Moreno tried every shenanigan imaginable to prevent them.  First they said they couldn't run as Correa's party because Moreno had that position.  When Correa's followers tried using the slot left open by a defunct party, they resurrected people who said they were the officials of that long discarded party.  All the other 16 parties were campaigning for months before the government election commission finally allowed Correa's followers to contest the local elections.  (The government couldn't outright ban the party from running because that would be too obvious and there would be too much of an uproar.) So with just two months left before the day of the election, the government permitted them to run.

   Then the government effectively barred Paola and the other candidates (mayor, vice provincial head, etc.) of Correa's new party No. 5 from appearing on TV.  So party No. 5 had to use social media, radio and caravans through the streets of Pichinca province which includes the capitol Quito.

Luisa Maldonado

  I got these photographs while covering the caravans.
 People would come out onto the street wondering what all the commotion was about.  Paola and her running mate, Alexandro Tonello, a mountain of a man with genuine politeness, and the mayoral candidate, Luisa Maldonado, a motherly figure with an 18-year-old's radiant smile, would ask for votes over a loud speaker from atop a large truck opened at the top.

A small pickup truck would proceed them with Guillermo and his two assistant camera men, Andres and Ismael, videotaping the campaign to put on social media asap in 30-second spots.

 I'd run along side with the 100 or more volunteers who were waving large No. 5 flags, and catch as catch can.  Some of the young female volunteers were blow-you-out-the-door photogenic so I photographed them.

 
 A young male photographer was curious to watch. Fabian reminded me of Charlie Chaplin.  He was short so he couldn't get above the crowd to get the shot.  He'd hold the camera up as high as he could and look into the back camera screen.  He'd when run as fast as he could, trying to avoid sleeping dogs, to get to the next position.  There he'd put the camera up against his face to look through it.  You could see his double teeth in his open mouth from a side profile.  I thought he'd make a great comedic 30-second political ad with his antics.  It would all be in pantomime, with the catchy campaign song playing in the background.  He'd ask the pretty women volunteers if he could photograph them by showing them his camera.  They'd each smile and shake their head "No".  He's then try to get a photograph of Paola by jumping up above the crowd but invariable only get tops of head or a cockeyed picture of clouds.  You then see a light go off in his eyes like he's got an idea.  In the next scene you see the crowd.  A guy leaps up from the middle of the crowd.  It's Fabian.  He's got a small round trampoline that he's jumping on to go air born.  After 5 tries, he gets his shot of Paola and screams "Cinco", the number of the party.  I thought his scruffiness and vulnerability would appeal to young women, and risking a comedy would show confidence.

I run the idea by Guillermo.  He politely poopoo's it but humors me by saying he'll run it by Erica, Paola's campaign assistant manager.  (Paola's staff is refreshingly all women.)  When I joined the campaign, we were down ten  points in the polls to the former mayor of Quito who is a retired general, with nice teeth.   As the race was coming to an end, it looked like we could pull an upset.  What had been fun and games turned serious.  The final day of campaigning the party turned out a huge parade from the Old Town part of Quito going south ending with an emotional concert of traditional Ecuadorian music, confetti and fireworks.

Campaigning is not allowed the two days before the election.  Election day is another matter.  Paola accompanied the other local candidates to their voting precincts along with a 100 or more cheering supporters.  I greeted her with a chocolate kiss in an open hand and then put both of my hands behind my back and then come out with two closed fist for her to guess which hand has the chocolate.  She immediately touches the correct hand and I unconsciously grab her wrist and scream "YOU WIN, YOU WIN, YOU WIN'.  Her entourage takes this as a premonition and laughs.

 I go with Guillermo when he votes at 7 a.m.  He comes out of voting upset.  "They changed the ballet" he says.  "You can't vote straight ticket.  Each office is on a different piece of paper."  (We've been telling people "Todo Todito Cinco".)  "Don't the parties know what the ballet will look like?" I ask him.  "No" he replies, "it's kind of a secret."

   The polls closed at 5 p.m.  Usually the results are in by 6 because the paper ballots are counted at the precincts and sent to headquarters by internet.  It turns 8:30 and the government hasn't released any results.  The four exist polling companies have been reported to be barred by the government election commission from reporting their results.  I ask a TV reporter if this is true and he vehemently denies it saying that the polling companies decided on their own not to report their results.  This seems curious to me because the whole point of exist polling is to get the news out as quickly as possible.  The news networks hire the polling companies to beat their competing news networks.  But I don't directly challenge the reporter but do only indirectly by asking "Well does that mean that later tomorrow they will report their results?"  He reluctantly says "Yes" without belief in his voice.

The shenanigans don't stop.  Four days before the election the election commission tried to change the rules to say if you make a mistake on one vote then all your votes are invalid.  On election day mysteriously there are 498 blackouts at voting precincts throughout Ecuador reported to 911 emergency.  Voting is compulsory in Ecuador yet the polling places are crammed with hundreds of voters waiting a long time.



 Earlier a tenured professor at the university in Quito was fired for criticizing the government, sending a chilling effect over any one else who may dare criticize the government.  I interviewed Professor Fernando Casado after Guillermo introduced me to him.  He wondered if the only way Paola could win is if she gets too many votes to have to change.

   Paola holds a news conference with her running mates late at night.  It's the first time she's on live network TV - the election is over.  I wish she would call for the viewers to go down to the election commission and demand the results be released.  She says she will demand a recount precinct by precinct.  

  The election looks like it's going to be stolen. I take my frustrations out on Guillermo as he drives me home -  I'm staying in his apartment.  When he tells me he's going to stay with his girlfriend that night, I sarcastically say "Enjoy yourself, revolutionary".

    We wake up to the news that Paola got 22% of the vote.  The nearest challenger got 20%.  There are no run offs under Ecuadorian law.  Paola WON!  I'm so happy.

Paola and Alexandro

When I first saw Paola, I just saw a middle-class women.  After a month and a half of looking through the lens at her, and seeing how she related to the less fortunate, I see a woman I think will remember the people she saw along the roadside that came out to see her...