QUITO, Ecuador (AP) – Ecuadorian voters appear to be turning to a conservative businessman in Sunday’s presidential run-off election and refuting a left-wing movement that has held the presidency for more than a decade, marked by an economic boom and then a year-long recession, while in neighboring Perua, an overcrowded field of 18 candidates, was virtually certain that it would bring a second round of presidential voting in June.
Voters in Ecuador and Peru are voting under strict public health measures due to the recent coronavirus pandemic in both countries, which is delaying the closure of the closure period and raising concerns about their already battered economies. Peruvians also elect a new Congress.
The Ecuadorian Electoral Council does not have an official winner next month in the race to replace President Lenín Moreno, but the results released by the agency showed that former banker Guillermo Lasso with about 53% of the vote and the left Andrés Arauz at 47%, with just over 90% of the vote counted. Arauz led the first round of voting by more than 30% on February 7, while Lasso advanced to the finals by finishing about half a percentage point ahead of environmentalist and indigenous candidate Yaku Pérez.
Arauz was backed by former President Rafael Correa, a major power in the South American country, despite a corruption conviction that forced him to flee to Belgium beyond the reach of prosecutors in Ecuador. Moreno was also an ally of Correa, but turned against him while in office.
“Correa’s negative exceeds expectations of a new, unknown candidate who has had no career and who has not performed very well,” said Grace M. Jaramillo, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia. . “He did not speak for all audiences … for the entire population, and he could not respond to human rights allegations of the Correista era.”
Correa ruled from 2007 to 2017 as an ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. He oversaw a period of economic growth driven by an oil boom and loans from China that enabled him to expand social programs, build roads and schools, and pursue other projects.
But during his last term in office, Correa increasingly targeted opponents, presses and businesses, fighting with indigenous groups over development projects. Ecuador also experienced an economic slowdown in 2015, mainly driven by the fall in oil prices.
Lasso finished second in the previous two presidential matches. He is a proponent of free market policies and the approach of Ecuador to international organizations. During the campaign, he proposed raising the minimum wage to $ 500, finding ways to include more youths and women in the labor market, and eliminating tariffs on agricultural equipment.
“I have dreamed for years of the possibility of serving Ecuadorians so that the country progresses, so that we can all live better,” Lasso said in front of a room full of supporters despite guidelines for social distance. “Today you have decided that this is the way it should be.”
Lasso, accompanied by his wife, María de Lourdes Alcívar, said he would dedicate himself from May 24 “to the construction of a national project that still listens to everyone, because this project will be yours.”
Despite his stated conservative stance on issues such as marital equality, he promised to accept other views.
Election officials did not plan to officially announce a winner on Sunday, but at least one head of state congratulated Lasso on the outcome of the election. Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou tweeted that he had spoken to Lasso “to congratulate him on his success and to work together on the issues our countries have in common.”
Ecuador is deep in a recession that many fears will worsen as the stalemate returns due to an increase in COVID-19 cases. According to data from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, Ecuador counted more than 344,000 cases and more than 17,200 deaths as of Sunday.
The new president’s most important task is to ‘depolarize the country,’ Jaramillo said. “There will be no signs of governance if the new government does not reach out and generate a platform where agreements with the (National) Assembly are possible.”
The election in Peru turned into a popularity contest in which one candidate even pays attention to how he suppresses his sexual desires. The overcrowded area of hopeful presidents came months after the country’s political chaos reached a new level in November, when three men were president in a single week after one was accused by Congress of corruption allegations and protests forced his successor to resign in favor of the third.
All former Peruvian presidents who have ruled since 1985 have been embroiled in allegations of corruption, some have been captured or arrested in their mansions. One died by suicide before police could arrest him.
Claudia Navas, a political analyst, social and security risk analyst at global firm Control Risks, said the fragmented election was the result of an 11-party political system that had no ideological coherence. She said Peruvian people do not trust politicians in general because corruption is a major driver for the disillusionment of the political system.
Navas said congressional elections are likely to lead to a fragmented legislature, with no party having a clear majority and short-term political alliances remaining short-lived. She said the new Congress is likely to continue to exercise its prosecuting authority to strengthen its own influence and block any initiative that threatens its own power.
‘So we’ll probably still see significant legislative populism. “This implies movements that want to meet the public short-term needs and demands at the expense of sustainability in the medium and long term,” Navas said. “Regardless of who wins, we believe that the president is to some extent unlikely to complete his or her term of office due to the populist stance of Congress and that the risk of political instability is likely to continue through the government.
To avoid a June run-off, a candidate would need more than 50% of the vote, and a exit poll indicated that the leading candidate would receive only 16% support. The poll had Conservative left-wing teacher Pedro Castillo as the frontrunner, followed by right-wing economist Hernando de Soto and Keiko Fujimori, the opposition leader and daughter of polarizing former president Alberto Fujimori.
The country was hit hardest by COVID-19, with more than 1.6 million cases and more than 54,600 deaths as of Sunday.
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Associated Press author Regina Garcia Cano reported this story from Mexico City and AP author Gonzalo Solano reported from Quito.