--- description: The party of assassinated Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has chosen a friend and close associate of his to run in the nation’s convulsed elections. title: Ecuadorian Journalist to Take Assassinated Candidate’s Place on Presidential Ticket image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd976fa8300867782/698a3f7de6e84a0ed12b060e/Ecuador-election-candidate-Zurita.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Ecuador](/tag/ecuador/) ## Ecuador Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Ecuadorian Journalist to Take Assassinated Candidate’s Place on Presidential Ticket by [Stephan Kueffner / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Stephan Kueffner / Bloomberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 14, 2023 2:00 AM CUT  New Construye party presidential candidate Christian Zurita poses next to his running mate Andrea Gonzalez in Quito, Aug. 13, 2023. New Construye party presidential candidate Christian Zurita poses next to his running mate Andrea Gonzalez in Quito, Aug. 13, 2023.Martin Bernetti—AFP/Getty Images by [Stephan Kueffner / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Stephan Kueffner / Bloomberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 14, 2023 2:00 AM CUT The party of assassinated Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has chosen a friend and close associate of his, Christian Zurita, to run in the nation’s convulsed elections. Zurita, 53, is an investigative reporter from Quito who, like Villavicencio, has written extensively on domestic corruption. Zurita is the second candidate put forward by the centrist Construye party since Villavicencio was assassinated on Wednesday. Though Construye officially nominated Zurita as its candidate, he won’t be permitted to participate in the only debate before the election because the paperwork wasn’t cleared in time, said Diana Atamaint, president of the National Electoral Council. The debate, now among the seven other presidential candidates, is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time (8 p.m. EDT) on Sunday. The election will take place Aug. 20. Zurita said he will campaign on an anti-crime agenda that he helped Villavicencio write. He spoke at a press conference on Sunday at a hotel in Ecuador’s capital, flanked by vice-presidential candidate Andrea Gonzalez, an environmental activist. Both wore police-issued bulletproof vests. Villavicencio was [gunned down](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-10/ecuador-presidential-candidate-villavicencio-shot-dead-expreso "undefined") as he left a campaign event at a school in north-central Quito amid spiraling political violence. Six suspects, all Colombian, were arrested following the attack, while the injured alleged gunman bled to death in custody. The snap elections were forced by President Guillermo Lasso’s decision to shut down Ecuador’s congress, which was attempting to impeach him. If no candidate wins an outright majority or at least 40% of valid votes with a 10-point advantage over the runner-up, a runoff will be held on Oct. 15. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6304491/ecuador-presidential-elections-journalist-candidate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6304491/ecuador-presidential-elections-journalist-candidate/"},"headline":"Ecuadorian Journalist to Take Assassinated Candidate’s Place on Presidential Ticket","datePublished":"2023-08-14T02:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T16:16:30.726Z","description":"The party of assassinated Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has chosen a friend and close associate of his to run in the nation’s convulsed elections.","url":"https://time.com/6304491/ecuador-presidential-elections-journalist-candidate/","keywords":["Ecuador","wire"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd976fa8300867782/698a3f7de6e84a0ed12b060e/Ecuador-election-candidate-Zurita.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephan Kueffner / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd976fa8300867782/698a3f7de6e84a0ed12b060e/Ecuador-election-candidate-Zurita.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ecuador-election-candidate-Zurita","caption":"Journalist and presidential candidate for the Construye party, Christian Zurita (C), poses next to his running mate, vice presidential candidate Andrea Gonzalez (R), in Quito on Aug. 13, 2023. Zurita will replace journalist Fernando Villavicencio, who wa","creditText":"Martin Bernetti—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ecuador/","name":"Ecuador"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6304491/ecuador-presidential-elections-journalist-candidate/","name":"Ecuadorian Journalist to Take Assassinated Candidate’s Place on Presidential Ticket"}}]}] ```