Stabroek News

Ecuador vote down to the wire, leftist a whisker from first round win

-

QUITO (Reuters) - Leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno was within striking distance of winning the first round of Ecuador’s presidenti­al election yesterday, as the Andean country’s electoral body counted ballots late into the night.

In a nail-biter vote with eight candidates, Moreno was close to the threshold needed to avoid an April runoff and continue a decade-long period of leftist rule, just as South America is moving to the right.

While Ecuadorean­s are angry over an economic downturn and corruption scandals, the opposition split its votes among candidates and the ruling Country Alliance remains popular with many poor voters, thanks to social welfare programmes.

As results trickled in from Ecuador’s Andes, jungle, and Pacific coast, Moreno, a disabled former vice president, was just short of the 40 per cent of valid votes and a 10 percentage point difference over his nearest rival to win outright.

He had 38.88 per cent of valid votes versus 28.50 per cent for Guillermo Lasso, with 80.9 per cent of votes counted, the official preliminar­y election count shows, and appeared to slowly be inching up.

Government supporters said votes from pro-government provinces and Ecuadorean­s abroad would propel Moreno, 63, to victory. But Lasso, 61, was already celebratin­g in his humid hometown of Guayaquil by the Pacific Coast under a stream of confetti.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Guyana