Ecuador is on its way to the second electoral round | AT…

From Quito.Yaku Pérez arrived in Quito on Tuesday with a mobilization that traveled part of the mountains. His request was the same as that which had started the day after the elections of February 7: the existence of a fraud and, consequently, non-recognition of results ranked third, with 19.39 percent, behind Andrés Arauz, 32.72, and Guillermo Lasso, 19.74.

This time, he claimed that inconsistencies existed in 16,000 records, almost half of the total. “Doubt becomes a certainty, and fraud is a truth that no one can hide,” he said from El Arbolito Park, in the center of Ecuador’s capital, a place that had been the epicenter of the uprising against neoliberal adjustments by Lenin Moreno government in October 2019.

The march headed towards National Electoral Council (CNE), where they presented the complaints of the 16 thousand minutes. “We are going to give the CNE one last chance, they are empowered to open the ballot boxes,” said the candidate of Pachakutik party, electoral arm of Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAI), the main indigenous movement in Ecuador, which, however, did not witness the mobilization in a massive or unitary way, because could be seen in the absence of national leaders such as Jaime Vargas or Leónidas Iza.

“To guarantee due process, the political organization presented the CNE with a right of opposition, let us remember that the means of appeal that can be proposed are objection, contestation at the administrative headquarters and disputed electoral appeals can also be deposited before the Litigation electoral tribunal. The corresponding technical area, the legal area, must analyze each of the documents, the minutes, as well as the legal content of the appeal that was filed to deliver the plenary session of the CNE in due time ”. explained a spokesperson for the Pachakutik movement.

Pérez’s request for a recount was addressed not only to the CNE, but also to the Controller and the The prosecutor’s office that on Saturday they announced a request for access to the database of electoral power to audit the electoral system. This request had been denounced by the candidate Arauz, stressing his rejection of “the interference and the gross interference of other state institutions in the electoral function of the controller”.

The CNE announced on Tuesday that it had rejected the controller’s request, Pablo Celi, since “Article 16 of the Code of Democracy indicates that no authority outside the elections may intervene in the elections”. Consequently, the main institution that could still intervene, as Pachakutik explains on the outskirts of the CNE, would be the Public Prosecutor’s Office, to prove the existence of fraud and, therefore, have to call new presidential and legislative elections, which would open a scenario of uncertain times and institutions in the country.

The prosecutor’s office, headed by Diana salazar, also has what, according to the Colombian prosecutor’s office, would be evidence that blames Arauz received funding from the Colombian National Liberation Army, an accusation, born as false news via the Magazine week, which was reported as uAn international operation to undermine the candidacy of the citizen candidate for the revolution. Salazar obtained, on Tuesday, a special recognition of the US Department of State for his “fight against corruption”.

Pérez, as well as those leading the mobilization, have not yet specified what will be the roadmap of the demonstration, although, according to estimates, a vigil will begin at the gates of the electoral power, led at the central level by the Confederation of Peoples of Kichwa Nationality of Ecuador (Ecuarunari), an organization that Pérez chaired in previous years, and is part of CONAIE. The bet is also to achieve the solidarity of other social sectors around Pachakutik’s claim.

The trial before the CNE is in political solitude. No international observation delegation denounced irregularities in the elections, and neither did the other candidates, although Xavier Hervas, fourth in the elections, he was in favor of an audit because, according to him, he would not postpone the electoral calendar, as Arauz had denounced.

Lasso, for his part, claimed he was already campaigning for the second round, which will take place on April 11. Thus, who at first had accepted the recount request filed by Pérez, having already secured his second place in the elections whose result was published last Sunday at dawn by the CNE, abandoned the possibility of a follow-up ‘a vote audit process. The dispute between the two candidates has given rise to cross accusations in recent days, and to Pérez’s claim that he would not call on Lasso -or Arauz- to vote for a second round, contrary to what happened in 2017 when he supported the Guayaquil banker.

The debate on the elections was violently interrupted on Tuesday with the existence of three massacres in three prisons which generated 67 deceased, as reported by the director of the prison service, Edmundo Moncayo. The events took place in the prisons of Guayaquil, El Turi, Cotopaxi, in addition to events such as the riot that took place last December in Esmeralda, with six dead, or in August Litoral Penitentiary, with eleven dead.

“Never before has the country experienced a catastrophe of such magnitude in the prison system. We have seen unfortunate episodes of riots, violence and death. The co-government has allowed crime to take hold. of our cities and to steal the peace of Ecuadorians, ”said Arauz before learning the facts.