Arauz leads Lasso against a waiver of Ecu …

Barely two weeks before the presidential runoff in Ecuador, Correismo candidate Andrés Arauz gets a seven percentage point advantage with the intention of voting over banker Guillermo Lasso.. The data comes from a survey by the company Perfiles de Opinion. The same study places the zero vote at 25%, a very relevant fact since the indigenous Pachakutik movement asked its voters to vote in this way to protest against the refusal of the electoral authorities to carry out a large recount after its candidate, Yaku Pérez, was excluded from the second round by a margin. Over the weekend, Arauz and Lasso toured the indigenous regions of the country in search of winning over an electorate who could give them victory.

According to figures from the Opinion Profiles survey, Arauz progressed with 37.87% of voting intention, ahead of Lasso who would reach 30.19%. In addition to the 25 percent invalid votes, the poll points to 6.93 percent of blank votes. These figures make the results of the second round a further mystery.

A survey by the consultancy firm Clima Social published on March 25 reveals that Arauz, candidate of the Unión por la Esperanza (UNES), reaches 34.1% of the voting intention while Lasso, of the alliance CREO – Christian Social Party, records 27.1%. Meanwhile, the percentage of invalid and undecided votes is around 20%. Another survey from consultant and university professor Omar Maluk gives Arauz the winner with greater advantage, in this case 17 points.

Arauz and Lasso coincided over the weekend in advocating for the environment and in their attempt to woo the indigenous community for the second round on April 11. Arauz was in Cayambe (north) and He stressed that “climate change is not the fault of Ecuador, but of the rich countries of the world”. From Cajas National Park, he stressed on Sunday: “The struggle for the protection of water came from the people, struggles to defend life and their subsistence (…) Water is our future“.

For his part, Lasso visited different Amazonian provinces. On Sunday, he arrived in the city of Puyo, the capital of Pastaza. “Global support for education, health, safety, employment and opportunities for Amazonians is urgent,” he tweeted on Sunday. In the province of Orellana, the banker from Guayaquil appeared with his face painted as the indigenous Amazonians identify themselves, wearing a plume of feathers and necklaces.

Presidential candidates seek membership among indigenous sectors after having Yaku Pérez will be third in the first round with a surprising 19.39% of the vote. His Pachakutik party, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), promotes a zero vote in the ballot. The indigenous movement led protests against the government of Lenin Moreno in October 2019.

However, the collective also has deep internal divisions. The leader Leonidas Iza, president of the Indigenous and Peasant Movement of Cotopaxi, expressed his rejection of the Lasso. “I would never support you, the cause of the holiday that condemned Ecuadorians to migrate. He was the power behind Moreno for the neoliberal assault.
My fight is against the law, no matter where it comes from“, he assured a few days ago.