Page 8 The Skanner April 5, 2017
News
Leftist Claims Win in Ecuador Election; Rival Cries Foul
By GONZALO SOLANO
Associated Press
QUITO, Ecuador (AP)
— Leftist candidate Le-
nin Moreno appeared
to have won Ecuador’s
presidential election but
his conservative rival re-
fused to recognize the re-
sults on Monday, calling
on his supporters to take
to the streets to guard
against fraud.
Sunday’s second-round
runoff in the Andean
nation of 16 million was
seen as a barometer of
whether the left, which
had dominated South
American politics for the
past 15 years, could stop a
string of right-wing vic-
tories across the region.
With almost 99 per-
cent of polling places
counted, Moreno had 51
percent of the vote while
banker Guillermo Lasso
stood at just under 49
percent — a difference of
about 230,000 votes.
Lasso said he would
challenge the results in
all of Ecuador’s 24 prov-
inces after three exit
polls showed him win-
ning. He also questioned
why results, which took
three days to calculate
following the first round
of voting in February,
were announced so
quickly in Sunday’s run-
off.
He vowed Monday to
keep up the fight.
“We will exhaust all po-
litical and legal channels
in Ecuador and abroad
to respect the will of the
people who called for
a change,” he wrote on
Twitter.
Lasso accused Presi-
dent Rafael Correa of try-
ing to install an illegit-
imate government and
called on his supporters
to protest peacefully but
firmly.
Thousands of out-
raged Lasso supporters
shouting “fraud” crashed
through metal barri-
cades to almost reach the
entrance of the electoral
council’s headquarters
in Quito Sunday nightk,
but by morning the
crowd had thinned to less
than a dozen die-hard
supporters.
In Guayaquil, where
Lasso is from, support-
ers shouted “Get out Cor-
rea!” and threw sticks at
a formation of riot po-
lice before being pushed
back with tear gas. There
were reports of small
scuffles and clashes in
immediately
on
his
transition. With Correa
standing behind him, the
two joined supporters in
singing leftist classics in
an outdoor rally.
Outside the region,
the election was being
closely watched by sup-
“
Alianza PAIS's presidential candidate Lenin Moreno flashes a victory
sign at the end of the day of the presidential election, in Quito,
Ecuador, Sunday, April 2, 2017. Ecuador went to the polls in a second
round presidential elections. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
other cities but no major
disturbances overnight,
and Moreno early Mon-
day thanked Latin Amer-
ican presidents who
called to offer congratu-
lations.
Correa accused Las-
so supporters of trying
to deny the results and
provoke violence, while
the head of the elector-
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al council, a favorite
punching bag of the op-
position, appealed for
calm.
The only evidence of
possible fraud present-
ed by Lasso’s campaign
is the result at a tiny
provincial voting center
that it said was reversed
when reported to elector-
al authorities in Quito.
There was no immediate
comment from the Or-
ganization of American
States, which sent a mis-
sion of electoral observ-
ers.
Moreno, meanwhile,
said he would start work
respected local watchdog
found there was a techni-
cal tie, with a difference
of less than 0.6 percent-
age points separating
the two candidates. The
group refrained from
saying which candidate
had the advantage.
Sunday election was seen
as a barometer of whether
the left could stop a string of
right-wing victories in South
America
porters of WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange,
who has been living un-
der asylum at Ecuador’s
embassy in London since
2012. Before the election,
Lasso had said he would
evict the Australian ac-
tivist, who is wanted for
extradition by Sweden,
within 30 days of taking
office. Moreno said he
would allow him to stay.
On his Twitter account
shortly after the results
became known, Assange
took a jab at Lasso’s
pledge.
“I cordially invite Lasso
to leave Ecuador within
30 days (with or without
his tax haven millions),”
he wrote.
Three exit polls had
shown Lasso winning,
including one that ac-
curately predicted the
first-round results and
gave him a 6-percentage
point victory. A quick
count of voting acts by a
Correa said the exit
polls had “lied.”
“The moral fraud of the
right-wing won’t go un-
punished,” he wrote on
Twitter.
For weeks Ecuadoreans
polarized by 10 years of
Correa’s iron-fisted rule
had been bracing for a
contested vote
With Ecuador’s econ-
omy slated to shrink by
2.7 percent this year as
oil prices remain low,
analysts had been antic-
ipating that Lasso would
rally support from the
60 percent of voters who
backed anti-Correa can-
didates in the first round
and join the growing list
of Latin American na-
tions — Argentina, Bra-
zil, Peru and Venezuela
— shifting to the right in
recent elections.
The majority of voters
also said they were hun-
See ECUADOR on page 9