Union for Hope (, UNES) was a

political coalition A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who a ...

in Ecuador for the

2021 Ecuadorian general election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. Political groups from the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

participated, with only the Democratic Center Movement being officially on the ballot, to sponsor the presidential candidacy of

Andrés Arauz Andrés Arauz Galarza (born 6 February 1985) is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who ran for Vice President of Ecuador in the 2023 election. Arauz served as Minister of Knowledge and Human Talent in the Rafael Correa administration from ...

for the 2021 presidential election. Several social groups, provincial movements, and the

Citizen Revolution Movement The Citizen Revolution Movement (, RC) is a centre-left to left-wing political party in Ecuador formed by supporters of former President Rafael Correa who distanced themselves from Correa's former PAIS Alliance party during the presidency of Le ...

, of national scope not registered in the National Electoral Council (CNE), were also affiliate and in opposition to the government of

Lenín Moreno Lenín Boltaire Moreno Garcés (; born 19 March 1953) is an Ecuadorian politician who served as the 46th president of Ecuador from 2017 to 2021. He was also vice president from 2007 to 2013, serving under President Rafael Correa. He was nominat ...

. For the 2021 legislative election, alliances were formed in several provinces, together with the different local movements, distributing the candidates between movements.

Formation

On 7 April 2020, the leader of the

Rafael Correa Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (; born 6 April 1963) is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as the 45th president of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation until 2017, Corr ...

was sentenced to 8 years in prison and 25 years without holding any public office for bribery dating from 2012 and 2016, making it impossible for him to run in 2021. Likewise, the National Electoral Council removes the Social Commitment Force Movement from the electoral register due to a report issued by the State Comptroller General that warned of irregularities with the signatures of its adherents at the time of registration, and that therefore they will not participate in the 2021 presidential elections. In August 2020, due to the suspension of the party, the formation of the Union for Hope was promoted, together with the Democratic Center Movement of the former prefect of Guayas, Jimmy Jairala. This platform would later manage to announce the candidacy of

for the presidency of the Republic and with Rafael Correa as his vice-presidency running mate weeks later. However, his acceptance of the candidacy was rejected by the National Electoral Council as it was a personal, face-to-face and non-delegable procedure, as Correa was a fugitive from justice outside of the country since he resides in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. However, the candidates for the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

and the

Andean Parliament The Andean Parliament is the governing and deliberative body of the Andean Community, conformed by representatives of its four member states Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and one associate member, Chile. It is composed of 25 parliamentari ...

had no setback in accepting their candidacies, under the auspices of the Movement Center Democratic List, with Pierina Correa, sister of the former president, leading the list of national assembly members. In addition to Correa, other figures of the Citizen Revolution such as Sofía Espín, Marcela Holguín, Pabel Muñoz, Amapola Naranjo, Verónica Arias, Ronny Aleaga, among others, sought re-election in the 2021 elections.

Paola Cabezas Janeth Paola Cabezas Castillo (born 4 September 1978) is an Ecuadorian politician and former television presenter. She was the Governor of Esmeraldas Province from 2013 to 2016 and is a current member of Ecuador's National Assembly for the Citi ...

was one of those elected in May 2021 and she took over the Presidency of Union for Hope from Sofía Espín who had resigned.

2021 Ecuador general election

The 11 April 2021

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

run-off vote ended in a win for conservative former banker,

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 ...

of CREO, taking 52.4% of the vote compared to 47.6% of the candidate of Union for Hope, left-wing economist

, supported by exiled former president, Rafael Correa.

Presidency of Guillermo Lasso

In May 2023, the party was one of the proponents of impeachement proceedings against Guillermo Lasso. Expecting his imminent removal from office, Lasso invoked Muerte cruzada, a mechanism that dissolves the National Assembly and prompts new elections for parliament and president to be held in August. Paola Cabezas, an assembly member for the party, stated that they will challenge the invocation at the

Constitutional Court of Ecuador The Constitutional Court of Ecuador (Spanish: ''Corte Constitucional del Ecuador''), previously the Constitutional Tribunal of Ecuador (''Tribunal Constitucional del Ecuador''), is the constitutional court of Ecuador. History The Court was cr ...

, while also remaining optimistic about a political solution to the crisis being reached via the upcoming elections.

Members

* Democratic Center (National) *Social Commitment Force (National) *

(rejected by the CNE) *Permanent Forum of Ecuadorian Women *Confederation of Peasant Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of Ecuador (FEI) *Rural and Productive Force (FRP) *National Coalition for the Homeland (CNP) *National Patriotic Front (FPN) *SurGente citizen collective

Election results

National Assembly

President

References

2020 establishments in Ecuador Left-wing political party alliances Political parties established in 2020 Political party alliances in Ecuador Socialist parties in Ecuador {{Ecuador-party-stub