Elections in Ecuador: Guillermo Lasso surpasses Yak …

From Quito

Guillermo Lasso will go to the second round. This is the trend that has emerged as irreversible according to data proposed by the National Electoral Council (CNE) at the end of Wednesday afternoon. Lasso rose in percentage to Yaku Pérez, 19.66% to 19.61%, and 1000 of the 1100 recordings that remain to be calculated, or 2.59%, come from the province of Guayas, where Pérez has the fewest votes.

The news of Lasso’s entry into the waiver had been anticipated by calculations on the location of the score sheets to be counted, the areas of strength of Andrés Arauz, first, then of Lasso. “They give more votes to Lasso according to the original act and Yaku Pérez they put less, it is fraud ”, declared Pérez de Guayaquil, when news of his defeat spread.

The candidate of the Pachakutik party, the electoral arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), had already denounced a fraud since Monday, assertion supported since. << The Confederation of Quichua Peoples of Ecuador has just sent me that yesterday they filed a criminal complaint, and now the members of the assembly will do it, too bad, but if it goes with impunity, we are accomplices or encourage corruption, "he said surrounded by supporters.

With the confirmation of Lasso’s entry, a new scenario opened up, with an uncertain outcome.: Pérez, as well as CONAIE, who called for “respect for the popular will”, could attempt a process of mobilization, something which, to a small extent, has started to happen, a politically complex action with perhaps results. be unfavorable.

“We have been critical and self-critical in this process, we have ideological differences, but in the face of the threat of the right to undermine the popular will, we will mobilize and we will not allow the law, wherever it comes from, to pretend to be above popular decision, ”said Leónidas Iza, one of the main leaders of CONAIE.

As the fight for second place then ended with the CNE numbers, which should be maintained except for an unforeseen last-minute turn, political positions regarding the second round began to appear in various speeches. For example, Xavier Hervas, candidate of the democratic left, who came out fourth in the elections with 15.86%, called for the formation of an anti-Corréist front.

“I invite the candidates Guillermo Lasso and Yaku Pérez to join us in a transparent way for a ‘pact for Ecuador’, that the official results are accepted and together to promote the votes for the country in order to prevent the return of the ‘extreme, populist and corrupt left,’ he wrote on his Twitter account.

The position of Hervas revealed to what extent the anti-correísmo represents the point of union between the majority of the political forces opposed to the citizen revolution, which he shares with the former banker of Guayaquil, as well as with the leader of the Pachakutik. It is still early days to know if an alliance against Arauz will indeed be formed and what form, if it does occur, it will take. The track record indicates that Pérez called on Lasso to vote in 2017, and Lasso claimed ahead of the February 7 election that he would support Pérez in the second round, but these materials would not necessarily have a translation in the electoral databases.

Andrés Arauz, winner of the first round with 32.44% of the vote, responded to the announcement of the candidate of the democratic left with a proposal for common construction: “I invite the authentic Social Democrats to unite for a progressive and plurinational historical block for justice social freedom ”, wrote who will face Lasso, already beaten twice in the presidential elections by the citizens’ revolution, first in 2013 against Rafael Correa, and, in 2017, against Lenin Moreno, who later betrayed its political force and government programs.

With the confirmation of Lasso’s candidacy in the second round, an immaculate confrontational scenario is forming again: a progressive, Latin American proposal, with Arauz, and a project to deepen neoliberalism and alignment with the United States. . There are still two months left for this election and more than three to take over the new government, a period during which the Moreno government may attempt last-minute moves, such as the privatization of the Central Bank of Ecuador.