Ecuadorian Presidential Elections

Ecuadorian presidential elections were held on February 19th, 2017. Like the rest of the world, Ecuadorian seem to be split right down the middle when it comes to politics. The current president, Rafael Correa, is from a socialist party and has been the president for almost 10 years now. The same socialist party ran again but with a different candidate, Lenin Moreno, who many say will only be a puppet of Correa. There were 4 other candidates that ran, but the one with the most support was conservative Guillermo Lasso, an executive in one of the major national banks. Most of the people I am around are tired of Correa and ready for a change even though they do not particularly like Lasso, but they think he has the best shot of winning in opposition to Lenin. Like in the US, campaigning seemed interminable and got dirty, and only served to further divide the country.   The first election was held on February 19th, but in order to win, a candidate needs 40% of the popular vote and needs to lead the next candidate by 10 points, otherwise there is a runoff. Voting is mandatory in Ecuador for 18-65 year old. Voting is optional for 16 and 17 year olds and for people over 65. Lenin won the first election with 39% against 28% for Lasso, but he did not receive enough of the vote to prevent a runoff. There were a lot of accusations of voter fraud, and I even saw videos on Facebook of monitors at the voting tables marking blank ballots for Lenin. Supporters of Lasso protested in the streets, but since they tend to be white collar, middle-upper class, the protests were nonviolent.

Protests in Quito after the first round of elections

  There was more ugly campaigning during the interim period. The runoff vote occurred on April 2nd. We turned on the tv at 5 after the polls closed to watch the results come in. At first, we only saw exit polls by province, which to be fair were just polls and not official results. All but maybe 3 provinces had voted for Lasso. The overall tally based on the exit polls also had Lasso 53% and Lenin 47%. Closer to 7:00, the results suddenly changed. The reporters on tv said that the place where they were counting the votes had “lost power” or “lost connection” to the tv program, and now actually, all of a sudden, Lenin was ahead 52% to 48% Lasso. I am not making this up. Lenin was declared victorious with a final tally of 51% to 49%. Unlike the first round, you do not need to win by a margin, just the majority take all. Again, Lasso supporters are accusing Lenin of voter fraud and demanding a recall, but there has not been a recall. In the newspaper this week, they are saying that Lenin is accusing Lasso of fraud and threatening to put him in jail.     The sudden turn in the election results does make it seem like fraud to me. Most people I know are ready for a change in Ecuador after 10 years and voted Lasso, but that is only a select group of people. And now, all the people who voted for Lasso seem to agree that fraud was involved (most blaming the machines used to scan the ballots after they are marked by hand), but since the country is divided down the middle there is not enough support to question the official results. Furthermore, I am not sure there is anything anyone can do, because the same people remain in power and can destroy any evidence there might be. There have been some additional protests, including by indigenous groups who voted for Lasso. People were afraid that prices would go up and that protests would turn violent, but so far there have been no incidents. However, I expect things will continue to be tense until Lenin takes office in May.