By the time the third candidate was gunned down ahead of Ecuador’s provincial and municipal elections, there was little denying that the country’s surging drug war had meshed with politics. Accusations of ‘narco-politics’ were flung around by rival candidates ahead of the 5 February elections, with Interior Minister Juan Zapata accusing 28 candidates of holding links to organised crime. Security is now perhaps the foremost issue in Ecuadorean politics, although in a referendum held alongside the elections, voters rejected proposed reforms that would have bolstered the powers of the judiciary. End of preview - This article contains approximately 1387 words.
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