With more than 90 percent of polling stations reporting late in the day yesterday, ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno had slightly over 39 percent of the votes cast on Sunday, compared to 28 percent for former banker Guillermo Lasso, the closest contender among seven opposition candidates.
To avoid a runoff, and continue a decade-long streak of leftist rule in Ecuador at a time the rest of South America has tilted to the right, Moreno needed to win a majority of the total vote, or to have a 40 percent share while holding a 10-point lead over his nearest rival.
"Ecuadorean people: You have won. We're going to defend this victory," Lasso told supporters in a video message in which he urged protesters to stay firm and guard against being provoked. He said he had called several regional presidents and the head of the Washington-based Organisation of American States to denounce what he charged were "fraud attempts" that he did not specify.
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"I have faith we'll reach 40 percent," he said before breaking into song.
Lasso showed no sign of throwing in the towel even as Moreno's lead widened, with more than 1 million ballots still left to count. Electoral authorities appealed for calm, saying yesterday that it could take three days to sort through inconsistencies on tally sheets and late-arriving ballots from remote rural regions and Ecuadorean consulates abroad.
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