The Democratic Left (Spanish: ''Izquierda Democrática'', ID) is a
social-democratic
Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
in
Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
. It was founded in 1970 by the then congressman
Rodrigo Borja Cevallos.
Ideologically, it identifies as a central goal to "achieve social justice with freedom in an innovative, just, egalitarian, equitable, fraternal, solidary, dynamic, progressive and decentralized society under the inspiration of the ideological principles of
democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic ideology, economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and wor ...
... and inserts itself in the international scene, in the center-left tendency".
The party's most significant electoral victory was in the period following Ecuador's restoration of democracy in 1979, during the
1988 Ecuadorian general election, with founder Borja Cevallos as its presidential nominee. Borja Cevallos served as president from 1988 until 1992. As of 2024, this remains the first and last time an ID candidate for the presidency was elected.
For the
1992 Ecuadorian general election, Cevallos was constitutionally prohibited from seeking re-election. As a result, the party nominated politician
Raúl Baca Carbo, who had served as Minister of Social Welfare during the Cevallos administration, as their nominee for president. Carbo resigned from his cabinet position in 1991 to campaign for the presidency. Carbo was eliminated in the first round.
Rodrigo Borja Cevallos was selected as the party's nominee for the
1998 Ecuadorian general election, where he came in third place and was eliminated in the first round.
At the
legislative
A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
, held on 20 October 2002, the party won at least 13 out of 100 seats. Its candidate, former president Rodrigo Borja, won 14.4% of the vote in the presidential elections of the same day.
For the
October 2006 elections, it has entered into an alliance with the
Ethics and Democracy Network (Red Etica y Democracia), to support the ticket formed by former Vice-President
León Roldós, and Ramiro González, former Prefect of the
Pichincha Canton. The party won 13 seats in Congress again, while its presidential ticket came in fourth place.
In the
2017 Ecuadorian general election, the party formed an alliance with the indigenist
Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement – New Country and communist
Popular Unity (Ecuador) parties, called the National Agreement for Change. The alliance nominated retired
Ecuadorian Army
The Ecuadorian Army () is the land component of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces. Its 25,650 active soldiers are deployed in relation to its military doctrine. The contemporary Ecuadorian Army incorporates many jungle and special forces infantry un ...
general and politician
Paco Moncayo
Paco Rosendo Moncayo Gallegos (born October 8, 1940) is an Ecuadorian politician and retired general who was Metropolitan Mayor of Quito from 2000 to 2009.
Career
During his military career, he was the Commander in Chief of the Army in the Alt ...
as their presidential nominee. Moncayo was eliminated in the first round, and for the second round endorsed
Guillermo Lasso
Guillermo Alberto Santiago Lasso Mendoza (; born 16 November 1955) is an Ecuadorian businessman, banker and politician who served as the 47th president of Ecuador from 2021 to 2023. He was the country's first conservative president in nearly tw ...
.
For the
2021 Ecuadorian general election, ID nominated businessman
Xavier Hervas as the party's presidential candidate. Despite being a newcomer to politics and being nationally unknown, Hervas came in fourth place in the first round. In the second round, Hervas endorsed Guillermo Lasso. In 2022, Hervas left the party due to disagreements with its leadership.
In April 2022, the party had thirteen members in the National Assembly after it excluded
Johanna Moreira from the party.
For the
2023 Ecuadorian general election, the party supported the candidacy of
Otto Sonnenholzner. For the second round, the party announced its support for
Daniel Noboa. The party was left also without any representatives in the National Assembly, the result of an internal struggle within the party that remains unresolved.
For the
2025 Ecuadorian general election, the party designated businessman
Carlos Rabascall as their presidential nominee. His pre-candidacy and nomination generated controversy within the party, as Rabascall was vice presidential nominee for the Correist
Union for Hope ticket in the 2021 elections. As a result of Rabascall's nomination, a group of party members have threatened legal action and to take the case to the
Constitutional Court of Ecuador. These ID members also denounce the party's leadership for altering the statutes of the party to allow Rabascall to become the nominee, as the previous statutes stipulate that persons participating in elections representing ID require at least two years of membership in the party.
[https://reformaspoliticas.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/estatuto-Izquierda-Democratica-2018.pdf ]
References
External links
Official web site
{{Authority control
1970 establishments in Ecuador
Democratic socialist parties in South America
Political parties established in 1970
Political parties in Ecuador
Social democratic parties in South America
Socialist parties in Ecuador