Ecuador: Yaku Pérez and Lasso reach an agreement for a recount of the votes

CARACAS.– There is agreement for the settlement in Ecuador. A vibrant political day ended with a Solomon Islands decision taken by the National Electoral Council (CNE), by the two runners-up candidates in the waiver and by the mission of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Finally, 100% of the votes will be counted in the coastal Guayas, whose capital is Guayaquil, and 50% in 16 of the country’s 24 provinces, as requested by Yaku Pérez, the indigenous candidate who denounced alleged irregularities.. For this, a special examination mechanism will be available and no statistical study will be discussed. It will be accompanied by citizen support and will be followed by the communication channels of the CNE.

The country remained on hold on Thursday until the deal was reached. And what he witnessed is another unprecedented event in an electoral process in which almost everything seems to fit. It was first a baffling campaign in the midst of the pandemic, then a closed recount for five days with minimal differences between the two candidates called to run for president with Andres Arauz, elected by the former president Rafael Correa to regain power.

The summit meeting between Pérez and the conservative leader Guillermo Lasso The CNE itself was based in Quito, in the presence of the OAS mission. “Anyone who makes it to the second round needs moral and legal authority to defeat Correismo,” both agreed, with very similar words in their appeals for the common interest against the “totalitarian model” imposed on it. time by former President Correa.

Until then, the counting of the electoral lists was almost finished, exceeding 99.65%, already consolidating the minimum advantage of the Lasso by only 34,000 votes and 0.36% of ballots: 19.74% for the right and 19.38% for the candidate Pachakutik, both less than 32.70% of Arauz.

A few hours before the summit, the judicialization of the elections was a fact: Pérez had presented an appeal to the Constitutional Court to stop the count, convinced that the Correísmo would cook a fraud “first with the alterations of the physical results of the polls and the minutes and the second when entering the results into the computer system. This system has been defective for years, the Comptroller General has already made severe observations. “His candidacy also denounced an alleged electoral fraud to the prosecution.

Lasso and Yaku arrived at CNE ready to search a cordial understanding this would unravel the political crossroads and not affect them in their next political movements. Pachakutik’s candidate has raised his initial demands and demanded the recount of all votes in the country’s 24 provinces, then in 16, not just the seven he put forward on Thursday.

Lasso, who had previously contacted him on the sole condition that the decision be “within the legal framework”, countered the news in Guayaquil, the city where the most observed acts occurred during the process. Finally, he bowed to Yaku’s demands, knowing that his chances for April are to lead an all-anti-correism alliance.

The two candidates took advantage of such an unexpected platform, before the impatient eyes of the whole country, to develop their own political speeches. “If there was no fraud, I will be the first to say I was wrong. But the evidence indicates otherwise, we have serious doubts “, Yaku expuso.

His rival, seated on the other side of a large table, replied that “I am the first interested in the total and absolute transparency of the process”. Lasso insisted on the common objectives of the two and warned against the return of a “totalitarian model, violator of human rights and freedom of the press”.

What initially went towards some sort of waiver deal was twisted when Yaku accused Lasso of his actions as head of Banque de Guayaquil, which he chaired until 2011. Too calm for such stormy territory, with the radicals of the indigenous movement, some with a clear correist tendency, a vigilant eye. Until the CNE president ordered a suspension in search of some sort of solution, which finally came a few hours later.

“Carlos Pérez was never Yaku but Yankee Pérez. Small error in the civil status ”, tried, ironically, Correa, who did not give up a single centimeter in his campaign against the native chief.

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