Quito, Ecuador
Former Conservative banker Guillermo Lasso won the presidential vote in Ecuador on Sunday against left Andrés Arauz, the dolphin of former President Rafael Correa, who admitted defeat.
“This is a historic day, a day when all Ecuadorians have decided their future, they have expressed with a vote the need for change and the desire for better days for all,” he told his supporters gathered in Guayaquil (South west).
In the third candidacy for the presidency, Lasso obtained 52.51% of the vote this Sunday, compared to 47.49% of his rival, according to the partial official results of the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Lasso thanked God for the vote, his family, and his colleague Alfredo Borrero, “today the elected vice president of Ecuador,” he said, although the CNE has not yet officially decided on the results.
He thanked too Jaime Nebot, leader of the social-Christian party, which supported him for this presidential election, the third in which he participates as the highest authority of the The Opportunity Movement (CREO), a neoliberal party he created in 2012.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity to be your president and to be able to serve you,” he told his Guayaquil supporters, stressing that they would take over on May 24. challenging the “change of country” responsibly.
Throughout the vote, Lasso managed to overcome a nine-point advantage over Arauz, but gradually the difference was reduced with the number of votes in the provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas, strongholds of correísmo.
The difference in votes between the two candidates is about 420,000, an amount that shows that everything will not be exceeded at this time, although the number remains open.
In any case, Lasso’s followers went out to celebrate in front of the CNE headquarters in Quito and also in the cantons of Guayas province, where he is accumulating part of his political strength.
In the Samborondón sector, dozens of supporters gathered with blue and white flags of the CREO and Ecuadorian movements in an early celebration.
Meanwhile, in the area where Arauz’s followers were gathered, in Quito, people were retreating little by little, and the headquarters of the movement was emptied.
It is expected that in the next hour, CNE will make an official announcement of the preliminary count and that the two candidates will give press conferences, one in Quito and the other in Guayaquil.