Another twist in Ecuador: there will be no count of votes | …

From Quito

There will be no counting of votes in Ecuador. This was announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on Tuesday evening during another session which raised more questions than certainties about electoral power. The decision not to open the electoral roll was made due to lack of agreement: two members of the CNE voted for, one against, another abstained and one left the room. that around eleven o’clock in the evening it was half empty, which led to the suspension of the meeting.

The announcement was a new change of scenery in a context marked by successive twists: an agreement last Friday between Guillermo Lasso and Yaku Pérez, respectively second and third, to count 100% of the votes in the province of Guayas and 50 % in 16 other provinces, to a dispute over the terms of the agreement and mutual accusations of attempted fraud, at Tuesday night’s decision.

So, finally, what was initially planned should happen, that is to say that the CNE announces the results of the elections of February 7, where Andrés Arauz won with 32.72% of the vote, followed by Lasso, with 19.74%, and Pérez, with 19.38%. Arauz, candidate for the citizen revolution, had expressed his “defense within the framework of the law” about the recount, as well as his warning not to be used “as an excuse to change the electoral calendar or to prolong the government of Moreno” .

The decision taken by the CNE was rejected by Pérez, who on Wednesday reiterated the existence of a “shameful fraud”. During a conference given at the Pachakutik party headquarters denounced the existence of a “satanic pact” between Rafael Correa, Lasso and Jaime Nebot – former mayor of Guayaquil and leader of the Social-Christian Party allied to the Lasso in the presidential election – who would have ordered the decision taken by the electoral power.

Pérez announced in turn that there will be a mobilization of sectors of the indigenous movement, such as the Confederation of Peoples of Kichwa Nationality of Ecuador (Ecuarunari), which is part of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), whose political arm is Pachakutik. According to the party, the mobilization should begin this Wednesday and end on the 23rd in Quito. How consistent will leaders be around this call? What force will he deploy? These are some of the questions which, for the moment, have no definitive answer in the context of a heterogeneous indigenous movement and internal disagreements.

Actions will also relate to the legal order, such as, possibly, the Litigation Electoral Tribunal (TCE), such as Pérez affirmed by announcing that they will exhaust “all legal avenues”. Diana Atamaint, president of the CNE, explained Tuesday evening that “once the results are officially announced and the ballot is closed, candidates or political organizations have the legal possibility of filing appeals before the CNE and even appeals before the TCE”.

The possibilities of modifying the election results seem limited for Pérez, however. Candidate Pachakutik also argued that he will not support Lasso in the second round: “Don’t dream that we are going to support Lasso’s organized crime, or dream that in order to prevent Correa from Ecuador, we have to support Mr. Lasso’s bank holiday and corruption.”

This situation of dispute and results confirmed by the CNE would signify a scenario favorable to Arauz’s candidacy in the second round, due to the difficulty for an anti-corréist alliance led by Lasso, Pérez and Xavier Hervas, candidate of the democratic left , to take shape. ., fourth in the elections, which had proposed to conclude this agreement.

Arauz, with a third of the votes cast on February 7, was in the United States in recent days, where he carried out activities with the Ecuadorian migrant community in the country, as well as meetings with different political, media and economic actors. Guillaume Long, a former chancellor, who accompanied him, said Wednesday from Washington:

“We have unofficial channels, because Andrés is not yet president-elect, but you can already see he’s the next election winner, so there are a number of actors who want to talk to him in Washington, fortunately the Biden the administration has a very good attitude, in mutual respect, it will be possible to move forward with the administration, it is obviously easier than with the Trump administration, which was very close to Lenín Moreno ” .

A central agenda item in the United States was the meeting at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund. Arauz, in this regard, said in an interview: “we are going to discuss the program that is currently working, these leonine conditions cannot continue, which affect the pockets of Ecuadorians, there must be a lot more flexibility for the country to move forward. . (…) We cannot accept an increase in VAT, such a brutal reduction in public spending, we will not accept that the dollars continue to flow out of the economy. “

The next few days will be marked by the announcement of the results by the CNE – after almost two weeks of voting – Pérez’s attempts to reverse a scenario that seems close to his last-minute maneuver attempts, the return of Arauz to Ecuador. . and the threats against his still latent candidacy, in the context of an election taking place under the attempt, by different means, to prevent a new government of the citizens’ revolution.