Ecuador Dissolves Two Political Parties Ahead of Local Elections

Ecuador dissolved two opposition political parties ahead of local elections in November, a move critics decried as another sign of the South American country’s democratic backsliding under President Daniel Noboa.

The National Electoral Council, or CNE, said membership in the parties, left-wing Unión Popular, or UP, and centrist Construye, had fallen below a required minimum threshold. Construye’s past presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, was assassinated in 2023.