Ex-banker declares win in Ecuador’s poll

QUITO/LIMA — Former banker and three-time presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso declared victory in Ecuador’s presidential runoff elections on Sunday, calling it a historic day for the South American country.

“This is a historic day. It is a day in which all Ecuadorians have decided their future. They have expressed with their vote the need for change and the desire for better days for all,” said Lasso, after the National Electoral Council released preliminary official results.

The council has not declared a winner in the contest to replace President Lenin Moreno next month. But with 97.71 percent of the ballots counted, Lasso had 52.51 percent of the votes while his left-leaning rival Andres Arauz obtained 47.49 percent.

In his victory speech, Lasso thanked Ecuadorians for their support of his candidacy, which was backed by an alliance between the Creating Opportunities movement, which he leads, and the Social Christian Party.

During the campaign, the 65-yearold politician and businessman proposed raising the minimum wage to $500 a month, finding ways to include more young people and women in the labor market and eliminating tariffs for agricultural equipment.

Arauz promptly conceded defeat to Lasso and vowed to continue his political endeavor.

Peru eyes runoff

Meanwhile in Peru, left-wing candidate Pedro Castillo will face conservative Keiko Fujimori in a June runoff of the country’s presidential election, according to a fast count by pollster Ipsos of more than two-thirds of votes cast in Sunday’s election.

Castillo, a 51-year-old union leader and primary schoolteacher, secured 18.6 percent of the votes, while 14.5 percent went to Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned former president Alberto Fujimori, the tally of 69.1 percent of the vote showed.

The outcome would do little to calm market jitters over the future leadership of the world’s second largest copper producer, however.

Castillo has pledged to redraft the constitution of the Andean nation with a view to weakening the business elite and giving the state a more dominant role in sectors such as mining, oil, hydropower, gas and communications.

Free marketeer Fujimori is a deeply divisive figure whose father was jailed for human rights abuses. She herself has spent time on remand over claims that she received $1.2 million from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which she denies.