A man rides his motorcycle on a street with political propaganda of presidential candidate Jan Topic hanging from utility posts, in Babahoyo, Ecuador, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023 (AP)

Following the assassination of Ecuadorian Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, the Movimiento Construye Party announced that Ecuadorian journalist Christian Zurita would now be their candidate, however, the Citizen Revolution Movement complained against Zurita's candidacy.

The Citizen Revolution Movement, formed by former President Rafael Correa, claimed that Zurita was registered to a different party as they hoped to sideline him.

In response to these claims, the Movimiento Construye party stated that the Citizen Revolution Movement "is once again trying to silence us, confirming its fear of our candidacy."

📍Correísmo nuevamente intenta silenciarnos, confirma su temor a nuestra candidatura
Al verificar requisitos conocimos de un registro falso, se solicitó su nulidad con fecha 13 de agosto. @christianzr está afiliado a @Construye_Ecu y cumple todos los requisitos de ley#Todo25 pic.twitter.com/SWunDhaCDz
— Construye_Ecu (@Construye_Ecu) August 16, 2023

However, the claim of the Correa party was not completely unfounded as Zurita was in fact registered to the center-right Renovacion Total (Reto) party. The Construye party, however, said Zurita was registered with the Reto party without its knowledge.

Ecuadorian politician assassinated

A local politician in Ecuador was assassinated on Monday, party officials confirmed, less than a week after a presidential front-runner was shot and killed at a campaign rally ahead of this weekend's elections.

Pedro Briones, a member of the Citizen Revolution Party and one of the movement's leaders in the province of Esmeraldas on the border with Colombia, was killed by unknown gunmen.

"My solidarity with the family of comrade Pedro Briones, new victim of violence," Luisa Gonzalez, the Citizen Revolution Movement presidential candidate, expressed on X.

"Ecuador is going through its bloodiest period," considered Gonzalez, a close former associate of Correa. She called the Ecuadorian government incompetent and said the country has been taken over by organized crime gangs.

Correa also his condolences on social media, saying, "They murdered another of our colleagues in Esmeraldas. Enough is enough!"

Neither the police nor the government immediately confirmed the attack but Ecuadoran media, citing a local police source, said the victim was shot at his home in the town of San Mateo by two men on a motorcycle who later fled.

The murder came less than a week after the August 9 assassination of Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio who had been threatened by the Correa movement, as well as one of Ecuador's biggest gangs.