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Ecuador leftist leads presidential vote but may face runoff

20 February 2017 23:53 (UTC +04:00)

Ecuador's leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno looked set for victory on Monday in a presidential election, but slow results meant it may take days to know if he will face a runoff with former banker Guillermo Lasso, APA reports quoting Reuters.

In a nail-biter vote with eight candidates at the weekend, Moreno was close to the threshold needed to avoid a second round on April 2 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 programs.

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

He had 39.12 percent of valid votes versus 28.30 percent for Lasso, with 88.5 percent of votes counted, the official preliminary election count showed on Monday morning.

The electoral council said final results would only be ready in three days as votes trickle in from isolated areas and Ecuadoreans abroad, bureaucratic delays and "inconsistencies" in some ballots.

"How can they take three days to count 12 percent?" said Lasso, 61, who already celebrated reaching the second round in his humid hometown of Guayaquil under a stream of confetti on Sunday night.

"We're not going to allow fraud... If they toy with the results, we'll take to the streets," he added.

A couple of hundred opposition supporters have already congregated in front of the electoral council headquarters in Quito to demand a speedier and more transparent count.