Leftist Moreno Heading to Disputed Win in Ecuador Election

[TBoneTX 45,570]

This is awful news, but the only foreseeable outcome (fraud to achieve a predetermined goal).  Lasso was announced as the winner, but NO!  Now they're tied!  And now, "Rafael Correa Jr." (Lenin Moreno) will probably take office and run Ecu even further into the ground.

Leftist Moreno heading to disputed win in Ecuador election

 

GONZALO SOLANO

Associated Press / April 02, 2017

 

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno looked headed to victory in Ecuador's presidential runoff Sunday but his rival refused to recognize the results, claiming he was the victim of fraud in what could set the stage for protests.

 

The election in the small Andean nation of 16 million was being watched closely for whether it marked a comeback for leftist candidates after a string of right-wing victories across Latin America,

 

With almost 96 percent of voting acts counted, the National Electoral Council said Moreno had 51 percent of the vote to banker Guillermo Lasso's 49 percent. A difference of 214,000 votes separated the two candidates with about twice the number of votes still left to count.

 

Lasso demanded a recount after three exit polls showed him winning. He also questioned why results that took three days to calculate following the first round of voting in February were announced so quickly in Sunday's runoff.

 

"This is very sickening. We're not going to allow it," said Lasso, who called on supporters to protest the results peacefully but firmly.

 

"They've crossed a line, which is pretending to abuse the people's will" and install an "illegitimate" government, Lasso said.

 

Story continues here:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ecuadoreans-vote-closely-watched-presidential-election-041206988.html

[CaliCat 3,957]

Can they ask for a recount, if they suspect fraud?

[Dashinka 24,627]

1 hour ago, CaliCat said:

Can they ask for a recount, if they suspect fraud?

I am not sure if this is fact based or opinion, but this is what I read related to a recount.

 

"The opposition’s calls for a recount are unlikely to succeed, said Sebastian Hurtado, president of Profitas, a Quito-based political-risk consulting firm.

 

“The government has the upper hand,” he said. “They are going to try to wrap this up as quickly as possible.”"

 

The other thing that was interesting in this article is how violent one side is.

 

"Tensions mounted late Sunday as both candidates declared victory following a contentious campaign that saw Mr. Lasso hit with rocks while leaving a soccer match and the opposition argue that the election of Mr. Moreno would push Ecuador toward a similar fate as crisis-ridden Venezuela."

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/lenin-moreno-slightly-ahead-in-ecuadors-presidential-vote-1491192726

[CaliCat 3,957]

And what could go wrong with that, right?

[IAMX 3,055]

Anyone know how this election might affect Assange?

[Dashinka 24,627]

13 minutes ago, SRVT said:

Anyone know how this election might affect Assange?

I read an article in DM that said extradition was unlikely as they were essentially calling it for Moreno.  Time will tell.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Bill & Katya

[IAMX 3,055]

42 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

I read an article in DM that said extradition was unlikely as they were essentially calling it for Moreno.  Time will tell.

Well that's good news then, assuming things stay the way the news is reporting it. 

[bcking 3,157]

I was in Quito about 3 weeks ago and there was a decent sized protest outside the Presidential Palace (Building? Home? Forget what they called it). Don't know which side it was for/against. Glad I'm not there now. Even then there was a long row of police in heavy armor with riot shields.

[TBoneTX 45,570]

Everyone hates Correa's guts -- big-spending, nose-in-the-air Hugo Chavez wannabe.  He had to mortgage the country to China because of his insistence on taking his entire entourage all around Ecu for his weekly presidential addresses.  He raised import taxes so high that no one can afford to buy anything.  When I was last there, a 32" flat-screen TV cost over $3,000.  Clothing costs are no better.  He rewrote the Constitution twice to benefit himself; he bribed poor people to vote for him; he fired all experienced bankers (including Mrs. T-B.'s aunt) to avoid paying their salaries; he closed all the casinos because they "weren't dignified"; he fired all the doctors in the public hospitals so he could hire Cuban doctors at fractional pay; and you name it.  Lenin (apt name) Moreno will continue all of this poppycock.

[TBoneTX 45,570]

11 hours ago, SRVT said:

Anyone know how this election might affect Assange?

Uncle T-B. sent this article the other day; no link, but probably searchable:

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Ecuador decides its future, and maybe Assange's, in runoff

Paola LOPEZ

AFPApril 2, 2017

Ecuador's presidential runoff vote pits the socialist president's designated heir, Lenin Moreno (pictured), against conservative ex-banker Guillermo Lasso

 

Ecuador's presidential runoff vote pits the socialist president's designated heir, Lenin Moreno (pictured), against conservative ex-banker Guillermo Lasso (AFP Photo/Juan Cevallos)

Quito (AFP) - Ecuadorans headed to the polls Sunday in a presidential runoff that will turn the page on a decade under leftist Rafael Correa and decide whether the nation follows Latin America's rightward shift.

The election could decide the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up at the country's London embassy since 2012.

Polls opened at 7:00 am (1200 GMT), with the socialist president's designated heir, Lenin Moreno, in a tight contest with conservative ex-banker Guillermo Lasso.

Correa presided over an economic boom that has recently gone bust in the South American oil producer. With voters torn between continuity and change, the race remains too close to call.

"It's a decisive moment because we've had a conservative reaction in recent years," Correa said after casting his ballot, adding that "the whole world is watching."

Lasso finished second in the first-round vote last month, with 28 percent to Moreno's 39 percent. But polls give him a slight edge heading into the runoff, with between 52.1 percent and 57.6 percent of the vote.

The race is also a barometer of the political climate in Latin America, where more than a decade of leftist dominance has been waning.

Argentina, Brazil and Peru have all shifted to the right in recent months, as the region has sunk into recession and leftist leaders have been tarnished by a string of corruption scandals.

Also weighing on the Ecuadoran elections is the deepening political and economic crisis in leftist-ruled Venezuela, raised by Lasso in the final days of his campaign.

"I want a change and for corruption to be definitively put a stop to," said Elena Pabon, a 67-year-old retiree, as she went to the polls.

Fausto Dutan, who is 65, said he hopes "the good sense of our people triumphs. I want the achievements of the past decade to be consolidated."

An opposition victory, he said, "would mean the collapse of this country."

- What kind of change? -

Boosted by high prices for its oil exports, Ecuador registered solid economic growth averaging 4.4 percent per year during the first eight years of Correa's presidency, before tipping into recession in mid-2015.

Correa won loyal fans among the poor with generous social benefits that helped reduce the poverty rate from 36.7 percent to 23.3 percent in this country of 16 million people.

But he has also faced accusations of corruption and squandering the windfall of the oil boom.

Political analyst Napoleon Saltos of the Central University of Ecuador said the election would be played out between "the vote against the government and the fear among certain parts of the population that they will lose what they gained over the past 10 years."

Lasso, 61, appears to have gained the edge by uniting the opposition vote behind his promises to end tax-and-spend policies and create a million jobs.

But Moreno, 64, has sought to co-opt the buzzword of "change" for himself.

"We're heading for a change, yes, but a positive change, not a negative change, a change toward the past," he told AFP Wednesday.

- Assange's fate at stake -

In another of the race's hot debates, Lasso has threatened to revoke the political asylum Ecuador has granted its most famous guest, Assange.

Correa, an outspoken critic of the United States, let Assange stay at the London embassy to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden over rape allegations by two women.

The 45-year-old Australian, who denies the accusations, says he fears Sweden would send him to the United States to face trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

His case has returned to the spotlight since WikiLeaks was accused of meddling in the US election last year by releasing a damaging trove of hacked emails from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign and her Democratic party.

Edited April 4, 2017 by TBoneTX

[TBoneTX 45,570]

An important point to make is that voting in Ecu is mandatory.

 

I was there when Correa won his first attempt to dissolve the Congress and rewrite the Constitution.

The election reporting consisted of the news anchorman consulting a laptop computer, occasionally turning it to show to the camera, and saying, "We will have final results in 12 minutes.  We will have final results in 18 minutes.  We will have final results in 7 minutes.  We will have final results in 24 minutes."

 

Ecu has used the U.S. dollar for a couple of decades or so, which is probably the only thing that kept them from falling off the economic precipice.

 

Trivia:  Our $2 bill is viewed as very good luck by people (usually in the bigger cities); conversely, it's viewed with suspicion in the smaller towns.

 

Trivia:  Ecu uses our dollar coins far more than our $1 bills.  On one trip to Mrs. T-B.'s rather isolated hometown, where they were still using the Sacagawea & Susan B. Anthony coins, I had some new Presidential dollar coins and paid a taxi driver with one.  He took it, looked at it with wonder, and smiled at me.  I mustered my entire vocabulary of bad Spanish, said "Otros aqui" (more here), and pointed him to Mrs. T-B.'s sister's store, where I'd just given her some rolls of those coins.  The guy parked his taxi and quite literally raced inside.

[TBoneTX 45,570]

Brief diversion, si man.

---

Here is what can be seen outside Mrs. T-B.'s hometown, see man:

 

Here is what might be for dinner in Mrs. T-B.'s hometown, si man:

 

And here is another sight to see from Mrs. T-B.'s hometown, see man:

Oh -- it's Mrs. T-B., she man!

[TBoneTX 45,570]

If the election results hold up, it will be interesting to see the reaction from the losing side.

If the election is overturned, there will probably be riots.

[Dashinka 24,627]

This seems like it could be an even worse situation than Venezuela since the former president is still around to meddle behind the scenes.  I often read stories of the on going revolutions that seem to be perpetual in that part of the world.  What are they still revolting against?  

[IAMX 3,055]

3 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

This seems like it could be an even worse situation than Venezuela since the former president is still around to meddle behind the scenes.  I often read stories of the on going revolutions that seem to be perpetual in that part of the world.  What are they still revolting against?  

It's looking to me like the status quo of these already-archaic globalist movements is to undermine sovereign elections when things don't go their way. I now like to call this the Soros effect.

Edited April 4, 2017 by SRVT