Compare and contrast. That was the object of President Rafael Correa’s celebration of his seventh anniversary in power on 18 January. It worked on two levels. The first was symbolic. Correa attended a party in a poor suburb of the coastal city of Guayaquil designed to show voters ahead of municipal elections on 23 February that the long-serving city mayor Jaime Nebot is only concerned with lining the pockets of the ‘oligarchy’ rather than helping the poor. Just in case the message was not clear enough Correa also took nearly a week’s leave of absence this month to campaign with candidates from his party, Alianza País (AP), especially in the province of Guayas. He took the opportunity to list all the achievements of his government over the last seven years compared with mayors representing Ecuador’s traditional parties, or partidocracia. End of preview - This article contains approximately 969 words.
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