The banker Lasso beat the correista Arauz | Jan…

From Quito

Guillermo Lasso won the presidential election against Andrés Arauz in Ecuador. He obtained 52.51% of the vote against 47.49% with 93.29% of valid minutes out of a total of 97.60% scrutinized. The results were delivered early in the evening of Election Sunday by the National Electoral Council (CNE), after a day that unfolded across the country between seven in the morning and five in the afternoon.

The result contradicted what most polls had predicted, which for weeks left Arauz the winner. with varying percentages. Regarding the draw, it was 1,660,802 and the target was 163,913, out of a total of 10,211,652 voters. In this way the candidate of the CREO alliance and the Christian Social Party was victorious to assume the presidency on May 24.

“We will work from tomorrow on the vaccination process, we will work decisively so that the 17 million Ecuadorians, leaving no one behind, benefit from the change of a democratic, free and prosperous country, a country of freedoms, where no one should be afraid, tonight we can all sleep in peace and quiet. I don’t come with a list of those I want to persecute or see in prison, I want to see all Ecuadorians free, that they are not afraid of the government, ”he said.

“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your president and to be able to serve you. Today is a day of celebration, democracy has triumphed, you have all used your right to choose and have chosen a new path very different from that of the last 14 years in Ecuador. From May 24, we will assume with responsibility the challenge of changing the destiny of our homeland and realizing for all of Ecuador the opportunities to which we all aspire ”, he underlined.

“I want to say goodbye by asking everyone to feel sheltered by the national tricolor flag, the only flag that unites us to the 17 million Ecuadorians, I want to ask God to continue to bless us (…) dear friends , may God bless Ecuador. “

Arauz, for his part, said in his statements: “Today the time has come to move forward, we must build bridges and build bridges, this is an electoral setback, but by no means a political and moral defeat., because our project is for life. I will call Mr. Guillermo Lasso, I will congratulate him on the electoral victory obtained today and I will show him our democratic convictions ”.

“The more than four million votes that accompany me today are a mandate, a commitment to defend policies that support and promote social justice, dignity, education and public health. With all our political and legislative force, which makes us the main political force of the Republic of Ecuador, we will be attentive to any attempt to use the state for the benefit of the privileged few, we will be, as we have always done, defending the big majorities, ”he said.

“Our objective is to be able to build this new majority, this historic bloc, represented by progressivism, plurinationality and social democracy, are constitutive elements of our State, of our Constitution, and must be reflected in the progressive popular majority. that Ecuador needs. . Today is not the end, it is the beginning of a new stage of popular power ”.

Lasso’s percentage meant having reversed a distance of over 12 points that had separated him from Arauz in the first lap. The reasons for this trip can be explained by various reasons, such as the agglutination of an anti-correista vote in a country marked by the Correísmo / anti-Correísmo divide, the migration of voters from Yaku Pérez and Xavier Hervas – third and fourth in the first round – in favor of Lasso.

Arauz’s defeat can also be explained by the limitations of his campaign, part of a movement with persecuted politicians, with leaders outside the country, and little organizational structure. “We arrived at these elections under very complex conditions, we all know that we have been victims of persecution, harassment, insults, hatred, the attempt to ban our movement, to attack the person, the family, ”Arauz said.

Election day passed without incident. The two candidates were present in different polling centers. The first, who does not have a residence in Ecuador, and therefore could not vote, was south of Quito – a popular district of the city – with his running mate in the vice-presidency, Carlos Rabascall. They both accompanied Silvia, a merchant in debt with a microcredit, to vote, on the verge of losing her home and business.

“We accompanied Silvia to vote, to exercise her right, her constitutional obligation, her chance to regain her dignity, her future, her hope in our country (…) we need a government of national unity, today ‘we are here together with everyone in Ecuador, we call for this unity, enough fighting, enough fighting, we want a government that serves the majority, that provides solutions to the problems, and we are here for that ”, Arauz said.

Lasso, for his part, voted in the other center of electoral power, the city of Guayaquil, accompanied by his wife, María Lourdes Alcivar. There, he affirmed: “It is a day when all Ecuadorians, with the power of the vote, can choose the future that our children, our grandchildren will live, we all aspire to an Ecuador of opportunities, free and democratic, where all families can achieve prosperity “.

Both candidates called for the formation of a “unity government” in the context of a country in economic and health crisis, marked by the correísmo / anti-correísmo divide that cuts across all politics, including the indigenous movement, the political betrayal of outgoing President Lenín Moreno, the deployment of legal action against Correísmo that, in this movement, meant an institutional degradation and a reduction of democracy.

With Lasso’s victory, a new stage of deepening neoliberalism in Ecuador will now begin, which already has an advance on the privatization project of the Central Bank of Ecuador, this could be done before Moreno leaves the presidential palace in Carondelet on May 24. The continental map will continue, for its part, at the same point of correlation between progressive forces and right-wing governments, with consequent limitations for the reconstruction of Latin American integration bodies.