Elections in Ecuador: the anti-correism pact re …

From Quito.

In an unusual twist, Ecuador’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Friday that will have 100% of the votes in the province of Guayas and 50% in 16 provinces, without announcing what they will be, or for what reasons. Thus, when the country has approached to know the final result of the ballot, with already 99.65% of the votes counted, a counting process will begin, the estimated time of which has not been announced.

The CNE’s decision came after a meeting in which only the candidate Guillermo Lasso, of the CREO-Christian Social Party (PSC) coalition, second in the elections, Yaku Pérez, of the Pachakutik party, third in the electoral result, and the Organization of American States (OAS) participated..

The meeting held at the seat of electoral power was divided into four moments. First, Pérez showed what would be irregularities between the minutes, the ballots and the computer system, second, an exchange took place between Lasso and Pérez which oscillated between a negotiation and an agreement to stop the correismo, third, an interruption of an hour and a half, and finally an announcement of a few minutes by the president of the CNE, Diana Atamaint, belonging to the Pachakutik party, announcing the decision.

The CNE did not present any elements to explain why the count will be made in the provinces, being Guayas the most numerous, where Andrés Arauz won with 41.82%, followed by Lasso with 25.27, Xavier Hervas with 9, 94 and finally Pérez with 8.73. The decision was therefore an agreement that left aside the other parties, in particular the first, Arauz, with 32.70% of the total vote, as part of an electoral process in which the international observer delegations present during the vote did not indicate irregularities..

Lasso himself said at the meeting that he had “no shadow of doubt” about the electoral process, but expressed his willingness to partially yield to Pérez’s demand. “I ask the CNE, beyond the law, in homage to the request of the candidate Pérez, to open 100% of the ballot boxes in the city of Guayaquil, vote by vote,” said Lasso in what was his first against – proposal on demand. De Pérez, who called for the counting of votes in all the provinces. Candidate Pachakutik argued that if the votes were counted the outcome of the election would be reversed: Arauz would move up to third place and the ballot would be between him and Lasso.

The scenography between the second and the third presidential candidate, as well as the decision, was televised for only a few minutes, transmitted only by social networks in a country with poor connectivity. The end result will have an impact on the electoral process, due to the possible change in numbers, as well as on the schedules, something on which the CNE did not give details, although Pérez, leaving the electoral power, said the process will begin on Sunday.

This unusual decision was taken against a backdrop of suspicion around electoral power since the start of the campaign due to the number of irregularities committed against Arauz’s candidacy. The presence of the OAS at the meeting, which played a central role in the coup in Bolivia in October / November 2019, raised further doubts about the transparency of the new vote count that is about to begin. As for political intentionality, there was no doubt: “You and I are facing the same adversary”, that is, the correismo, Lasso told Pérez.

Friday was also marked by the arrival in Quito the Attorney General of Colombia, Francisco Barbosa, who came at the request of the Ecuadorian public prosecutor’s office, to provide information on the financing of the National Liberation Army (ELN) to the Arauz campaign. The alleged financial support had been disclosed by the magazine Week days before the elections in Ecuador, in an investigation with information which, according to one of its journalists, “was not absolutely true”.

So in the span of a day, the scene in Ecuador suddenly, although not surprisingly, turned due to the crisis of institutions in the context of the law being deployed against Correismo. The country was facing an agreement made behind closed doors counting without explanation, and an international maneuver, with fake news of ELN funding, which seeks to affect Arauz’s candidacy.