The Ecuadorian electoral drama continues. Nine days after the first round of the presidential election, Ecuadorians do not know who the ex-banker Guillermo Lasso or the Indian leader Yaku Perez will contest on April 11 the second round against the economist Andres Arauz, dolphin of the former president socialist Rafael Correa (2007-2017). Convicted of corruption, Mr. Correa, who lives in exile in Belgium, could not be a candidate for the vice-presidency as he would have liked.
Colombian Attorney General Francisco Barbosa added to the confusion at the time. The neighboring country’s chief prosecutor personally made the trip from Bogota to Quito on Friday, February 12, to bring to his Ecuadorian counterpart, Diana Salazar, documents found on the computer of a guerrilla leader killed by the army in October 2020. According to the weekly Semana, these documents would prove that the Colombian guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) would have financed the campaign of Mr. Arauz to the tune of 80,000 dollars. On both sides of the border, Mr. Barbosa’s journey was seen as “Very political”. Mr. Barbosa is a longtime friend of the far-right Colombian President, Ivan Duque.
Procrastination
Mr. Arauz led the first round with 32.71% of the vote. The official results give candidate Guillermo Lasso (19.74%) a very slight advantage over Yaku Perez (19.38%), who contests them. Under the aegis of the National Electoral Council (CNE), the two men had accepted the principle of a partial recount of the votes in 17 of the country’s 24 provinces, before Mr. Lasso retracted. While the operation which concerns nearly half of the bulletins promises to be expensive, the CNE is slow to set the terms.
On Monday, the election observation mission of the Organization of American States expressed its ” worry “ in the face of the continuing uncertainty, recalling that the electoral authorities must offer “Guarantees of security and transparency to all political forces” and that the electoral calendar must be respected. The procrastination of the CNE undermines confidence in the electoral system. “However, this one worked well”, notes an international observer.
Candidate of the Indian Pachakutik party and committed environmentalist, Yaku Perez is convinced that there has been “Massive fraud”. Its base too. On Monday, the Confederation of Peoples of Kichwa Nationality (Ecuarunari) called on its members to mobilize and go to Quito to monitor the CNE and its decisions.
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