Guillermo Lasso went to the second round of the presidential election in Ecuador after the confirmation of the Electoral Council

Former banker Guillermo Lasso and correista Andrés Arauz and have gone to a second round in the presidential election in Ecuador, according to the first official results announced this Sunday, reported the National Electoral Council, even if the candidates can still file some appeals.

According to the National Electoral Council (CNE), Arauz, from the Unión por la Esperanza alliance, obtained 32.72% of the vote (3,033,753), while Lasso, from the Creando Oportunidades (CREO) movement, obtained 19.74% % (1,830,045 votes).

According to the review, Yaku Pérez, of the Pachakutik movement, reached 19.39% (1,797,445), which keeps him away from the Lasso by 32,600 votes, the CNE said during a results proclamation session that it had suspended this morning after unveiling the first official results of the presidential election on February 7.

Once the figures are announced, The CNE said in a statement that “the presidential couples who will run for the second round of the elections on April 11” are those of the Union for Hope alliance and the CREO-Social Christian Party alliance.

After the results are announced on Sunday, political organizations will be notified and the stage is open to present various appeals, such as challenges or appeals.

The tally was approved by the vote of four of five electorates present at a meeting, which was reinstated on Saturday and lasted until Sunday morning.

The winner of the ballot will succeed Lenín Moreno, a former ally of Correa and whose four-year term will end on May 24.

Pérez, a 51-year-old environmental lawyer, claims a right-wing fraud sidelined him from the ballot after he was moved by Lasso from second place in the preliminary vote, for which he unsuccessfully raised a vote count from the CNE.

“Three days (of the preliminary examination) we were in second place and on the fourth day they already put us in third place, it is a fraud”, said the indigenous chief on Saturday in the Andean city of Riobamba (south).

Pérez could insist on his request in a phase of contestation that by law the CNE will open upon the promulgation of the results of the presidential election of February 7, in which 16 candidates participated.

– Combat between correísmo and anticorreísmo –

“I will continue to represent them in this second electoral round”Lasso said in a statement after the proclamation.

Added that “Today, democracy has triumphed, we are going with courage and optimism to this second round.”

Centrist Xavier Hervas came in fourth with 15.68% of the vote and the other candidates – including official Ximena Peña, the only woman – got support that reached 2%.

Lasso, a 65-year-old conservative, leads the opposition to Correa, who beat him in the 2013 presidential election.

In addition to the confrontation between the left and the right, “the correísmo-anticorreísmo struggle is happening”, he declared to the AFP political scientist Esteban Nichols, from Andina Simón Bolívar University in Quito.

For the former banker, who is running for office for the third time, “the most difficult elections are coming, he must seek alliances with antagonists” such as the parties which sponsor Hervas (democratic left) and Pérez (Pachakutik, arm Native policy movement) Nichols added.

Arauz, the former minister of Correa, failed to win the presidency in the first round as his leader did in 2009 and 2013, for which he needed at least 40% of the vote and ten points difference on his immediate follower.

Nichols argued that Arauz captured the electorate of the former socialist leader, who has lived in Belgium since leaving office and was sentenced in 2020 in his country to eight years in prison for corruption.

“In itself, that does not generate a vote. People voted for Correa, ”said the expert.

– Collect votes –

In defense of Pérez’s vote, whom the CNE’s swift tally placed second on election day and therefore stuck into the early days of the slow preliminary examination, indigenous groups held peaceful vigils outside the CNE headquarters in Quito.

The aboriginal chief insists on being the victim of fraud, which is why on Wednesday the natives began a “march for democracy” in Loja, to the south and near the border with Peru, with the intention of reaching the Ecuadorian capital next Tuesday.

“Unfortunately they are trying to rob us of our votes”Pérez said on Saturday in front of supporters in a town in the province of Chimborazo (southern Andes), where the march he is leading has arrived.

He added that before the pretension of “snatching and stripping us” of the votes, next Tuesday in Quito “we will come from rivers of people, rivers of hearts to say that our vote is defended, our vote is not stolen. Votes must be recovered ”.

The delay in announcing the results and the narrowness of the vote between Lasso and Pérez, both opposed to each other and to Correismo, led the UN and the OAS to demand “transparency” in the vote count.

The Office of the Comptroller of Ecuador on Saturday asked the CNE to allow it to carry out an audit of the electoral computer system before the election to “ensure the necessary transparency, legal certainty, legitimacy, the adequate use of public resources and contribute to the creation of an environment. of trust. “.

In the February 7 elections, the 137 members of the National Assembly were also appointed, without any party obtaining a majority. Correísmo will be the main force with around fifty seats

(With information from AFE and EFE)

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