Ecuador - Elections 2021
Over 13 million people were expected to participate in elections 07 February 2021 to choose Ecuador's next president. Ecuadoreans would also renew the electoral and legislative power by voting on 144 authorities and Andean Parliament members. The National Electoral Council registered over 2000 national and international observers to monitor the process. The next president will have to rescue the country from an economic and constitutional crisis that has further sink Ecuador in poverty during the mandate of Lenin Moreno. Most polls forecast that progressive Union for Hope (UNES) presidential candidate Andres Arauz will win in the first round of voting.
Most polls forecast that the Union for Hope (UNES) candidate Andres Arauz will win the election in the first-round although right-win forces have carried out a disinformation campaign centered on alleged fraud to force a second round. Arauz, the only progressive amid the 16 candidates, was Minister for Science and Education in the government of Rafael Correa and is due to become the youngest president in Ecuador's history. The other main candidates are the businessman and owner of financial holdings, Guillermo Lasso, from Creating Opportunities (CREO) - Christian Social Party (PSC) alliance and the indigenous leader of the Kichwa-Kañari nationality Yaku Perez from the Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement.
To win in the first round, the candidate must obtain an absolute majority of the valid votes, which would be 50 percent of the votes plus one or at least 40 percent and a difference of more than ten points over the runner-up. If this does not happen, the runoff would take place on April 11 Over 2000 national and international observers will monitor the process, including the European Union, the Organization of American States (OAS), and representatives from the Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America (Ceela) and the Global South Observatory among others.
The day had been marked by accusations of irregularities related to access to polling stations, prohibitions to observers to monitor the process, and extremely long lines in Ecuador and abroad, as thousands still await for the opportunity to cast their votes less than two hours before the polls close. Nonetheless, CNE authorities keep repeating that they expect that all people will be able to vote.
According to provisional and unofficial data from the company Clima Social, Union for Hope (UNES) Alliance candidate Andres Arauz won 36.2 percent of the valid votes, right-wing candidate Guillermo Lasso got 21.7 percent, and Pachakutik candidate Yaku Perez reached 16.7 percent of the votes. "We won! A resounding victory in all regions of our beautiful country. Our victory is 2 to 1 against the banker. Congratulations to the Ecuadorian people for this democratic party. We will wait for the official results to go out and celebrate," Arauz tweeted.
During an interview with teleSUR, political analyst Isabel Ramos stressed that Arauz's victory is a significant achievement because it reflects that the Ecuadorian progressive movement managed to overcome all the obstacles placed by the establishment.
The update of the vote recount in Ecuador changed the possible opponent of Andres Arauz in the second round of elections on April 11. With just over 1,100 tally sheets (less than 3 percent) left to be accounted for in Ecuador's presidential elections, new data from the Andean country's National Electoral Council placed banker Guillermo Lasso as the candidate who would occupy second place in the polls and with the right to move on to the April 11 runoff. According to the latest figures, Lasso would go (as in 2017) to the second round, even though it appeared as irreversible the voting trend and the fact that Lasso passed Yaku Perez Wednesday night with 19.66 percent of the votes compared to 19.61 percent. Furthermore, 1,000 of the 1,100 electoral records that remain to be computed are from the province of Guayas, where Perez has fewer votes.
The news of Lasso's entry to the electoral runoff had been anticipated by the calculations on the location of the tally sheets to be counted, strongholds for Andres Arauz, in the first place, followed by Lasso, which led to the denunciation of alleged fraud by the candidate for Pachakutik, Yaku Perez: "They are putting more votes to Lasso according to the original tally sheet, and to Yaku Perez, they are putting less, that is the fraud," he said from Guayaquil when the news of his defeat was disseminated.
Ecuador's top electoral body announced on 12 February 2021 it would conduct a partial recount of the presidential vote following a request from the two candidates battling for second place. Environmental lawyer Yaku Perez and right-wing ex-banker Guillermo Lasso made the request after finishing neck-and-neck in the race to face leftist economist Andres Arauz in April's run-off. National Electoral Council (CNE) president Diana Atamaint said there would be "a recount of 100 percent of the votes in the Guayas province," which is the most populous in the country, "and 50 percent in 16 provinces." She added "Once the recount process is finished there will be a definitive statement on the results".
Two presidential candidates with quite radically different visions were in front of voters in the 12 April 2021 run-off elections in Ecuador, as the country is being pulled into one of two possible choices. Andres Arauz, a left-wing economist with a program to increase the social safety net, prevent corruption and capital flight, and Guillermo Lasso, a ring-wing banker. He would steer Ecuador towards an unregulated free-market economy and continue to siphon the country's resources into off-shore tax havens.
After years of neoliberal policies inflicted on the nation under President Lenin Moreno's mandate, Ecuador's social, political, and economic situation has seen a drastic deterioration. Instead of continuing the legacy of progressive, pro-people, pro-Latin American integration policies carried out under the Citizen's Revolution of former President Rafael Correa, Moreno aligned himself with the continent's most retrograde forces and implemented a series of neoliberal measures, especially following the 4.2 billion dollar agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Andres Arauz of the progressive Union for Hope (UNES) alliance won the electoral first round and received 32.72 percent, while Lasso received 19.74 percent. This 35-year-old economist is currently pursuing a doctorate in financial economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He is supported by former president Rafael Correa and runs in the elections for a coalition of the left-wing Democratic Center and Social Commitment Force parties.
The option to annul the vote and thus fracture the left vote, postulated by Perez's Pachakutik party, experienced unprecedented support in the Ecuadorian presidential elections 12 April 2021. The call made by former Ecuadorian presidential candidate Yaku Perez, and his party, the Pachakutik movement, for citizens to vote null in this coming elections, had important popular support. More than 1.7 million of the votes cast at the polls, representing a formidable 16.33 percent of the total, were counted as null, sending a message of disapproval to both candidates who participated in the runoff. Those 13 provinces where Yaku Perez obtained a majority of votes during the first round of elections were the ones that, in the end, were decisive in the victory of Guillermo Lasso.
In one of his first statements on foreign policy, on 14 April 2021 Ecuador's President-elect Guillermo Lasso leaned towards the U.S.-scripted line against Venezuela, vows to invite exiled leader Guaidó to his inauguration, and promises a visit to Colombia. Ecuador's President-Elect Guillermo Lasso called on the international community to increase pressure on the Venezuelan government to guarantee "real democracy" in the country. "I believe that we should insist on dialogue and diplomacy, but the international community should think of stronger pressure mechanisms to guarantee real democracy in Venezuela," Lasso said in an interview with Colombian radio station FM.
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