Democratic Left (Ecuador)

The Democratic Left (Spanish: Izquierda Democrática, ID) is a social-democratic political party in Ecuador. 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... 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 elections, 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 general and politician Paco Moncayo as their presidential nominee. Moncayo was eliminated in the first round, and for the second round endorsed Guillermo Lasso.