Elections in Ecuador: Lasso shortens his c …

The delayed counting of votes in last Sunday’s elections in Ecuador has entered the home stretch and the difference between Pachakutik’s candidate, Yaku Pérez, and businessman Guillermo Lasso has been reduced to just five tenths. The indigenous movement called for the mobilization of its bases to avoid “an attempted fraud”. that leaves him out of the second round, where correista Andrés Arauz comfortably awaits his rival. What is certain is that control at the moment comes from the province of Guayas, where Lasso has the most support.

According to the official count of the National Electoral Council (CNE), with 99.45% of the tally sheets, Pérez won 19.65% and Lasso 19.60% of the vote, a difference equivalent to nearly 4,500 votes. According to data from the CNE, 1,101 minutes have yet to be reviewed, which represents around 400,000 votes, which can transform the result of the two candidates who play the tie pass.

“We will not allow electoral fraud, we continue in the permanent vigil demanding from the CNE transparency, honesty and respect for the right to vote. We will defend democracy!”, Yaku Pérez tweeted after his arrival Wednesday morning at the electoral delegation of Guayaquil to verify in person the review of the observed minutes. He later called “for calm, for peace, to wait patiently for the results, but be vigilant on each of the votes you bet on this project“.

In parallel the Pachakutik movement He called on the provincial bases of indigenous organizations to defend the 1.9 million votes obtained by Pérez, his presidential candidate, in the elections last Sunday. In a statement, the movement noted that “A great national mobilization will meet the maneuvers of the oligarchic pact between Lasso, Correa and Nebot, which can occur at the request of the process of counting the votes and inconsistent minutes.” Even the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), who until now had not come out in favor of Pérez’s candidacy, called for mobilization to “defend the vote”.

Only 220 records remain to be entered corresponding to electoral constituencies in areas of difficult access, and 1,101 others remain observed and not counted, the majority of which correspond to the province of Guayas., where the Ecuadorian capital, Guayaquil is located.

In the count for said province, Arauz was also the winner with 41.77% of the vote, but Lasso is second with 25.3%, while Pérez only appears in fourth place with 8.71%. This advantage gives hope to the candidacy of Lasso, What hopes “100 percent of the results” will secure his place in the second round.

If the banker has not yet indicated whether he will support Pérez against Arauz if he does not reach the poll, the indigenous leader on Wednesday rejected the possibility of asking for the banker’s vote against Correismo., as he did in the 2017 elections, when Lasso faced President Lenín Moreno.

“How are we going to support corruption? If Guillermo Lasso passes to the second round, it will happen with fraud and corruption. I stand out from corruption, even though I am one of my partners“Perez was quoted as saying by the newspaper Trade. The native chief said: “Mr. Guillermo Lasso is delusional on purpose, his advisers are on purpose, Correísmo will defeat them.”

While Arauz’s rival in the ballot is still a mystery, we already know that the composition of the next parliament will have the Union for Hope (UNES) coalition as its first minority, with 47 seats, followed by the indigenous party with 27 and the democratic left of Xavier Hervas, which was the great surprise of the elections, as the third force with 18 seats. No party achieves the necessary majority of 69 seats in the National Assembly.

In front of this situation, Arauz celebrated Tuesday that the majority of Ecuadorians voted for “progressive forces” in the elections and called for unity to ensure governance in the country, affected by a strong health and economic crisis.