Ecuador's electoral authority announced on Sunday that conservative candidate Guillermo Lasso will dispute the presidential runoff next April after coming in second place in the fiercely disputed February 7 election. The third-placed finisher denounced fraud.
Add your comment!Ecuadorean presidential candidate Andres Arauz, and protegé of ex populist president Rafael Correa claimed victory in Sunday's election, although exit polls indicate he will face a runoff on 11 April, according to primary results.
In a surprise move, Ecuador’s ruling party, Country Alliance, has called for a recount of the votes cast in the weekend’s presidential election. Its candidate, Lenin Moreno, had won the election by the narrowest margin, with 51.16% of the vote.
International election observers didn’t find evidence of fraud in Ecuador’s presidential vote, the Organization of American States said on Monday, despite claims from the opposition that it was cheated after the ruling party’s candidate declared victory in a narrow race.
Voters in Ecuador will be going to the polls on Sunday for the presidential runoff and a choice between a traditional South American leftist and a conservative ex-banker, that will steer the oil exporting country for the next four years. It will also show if South Americans are effectively abandoning populist ideas as happened in Argentina, Peru and Brazil.
Ecuador's electoral commission has formally ruled that a runoff election will be needed to choose a successor for socialist President Rafael Correa. The body's announcement on Wednesday confirms its earlier indication that ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno and conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso will face off in an April 2 vote.
Tension mounted as vote counting in Ecuador's presidential election dragged into a third day on Tuesday, with supporters and opponents of outgoing President Rafael Correa trading heated accusations. With the last ballots trickling in from Sunday's election, ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno had a little over 39% of the votes and an almost 11-point lead over conservative Guillermo Lasso, a former banker who finished second.
Populist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has maintained a huge lead over his nearest opposition rival in the run-up to the Feb. 17 elections, recent polls show. Correa's popularity has remained above 50% throughout his six years in office, buoyed by his personal charisma as well as his government's heavy spending on hospitals, roads and schools.
Ecuador President Rafael Correa officially announced this weekend that he would run for a third term in February elections -- a contest in which he is expected to be the runaway favourite.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said his family would support him if he were to run for re-election in 2013 and that his candidacy now rested on the “high chances” that he would be nominated as the ruling party's candidate.