Quito: Representatives of various indigenous organizations in Ecuador are advancing today towards the capital, in a mobilization demanding the recount of votes in the recent general elections.
The march, which began in the province of Loja, more than 650 kilometers from Quito, was called by the Confederation of Peoples of the Kichwa Nationality of Ecuador (Ecuarunari) and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities and Peoples of the Ecuadorian Coast (Conaice).
Ecuarunari and Conaice are two of the movements that support the presidential candidacy of Yaku Pérez, nominated by the Pachakutik party, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Ecuador.
Pérez and those mobilized ask the National Electoral Council (CNE) to suspend the scrutiny of the fair that already reached 99.98 percent of the minutes and to give way to an agreement adopted with the presidential candidate for the center-right movement CREO, Guillermo Lasso, to recount votes in 17 of the 24 provinces of the country.
The indigenous representation insists that there was fraud in some cities, in order to harm the popular support at the polls for Pérez and his partner Virna Cedeño and demanded that 100 percent of the votes be reviewed in Guayas and 50 in 16 other provinces, which was discarded when only the approval of the CNE was lacking to start the new calculation.
At the moment, only the passage to the second round of elections is assured on April 11 Andrés Arauz, nominated for president of the republic by the progressive coalition Unión por la Esperanza, who reached 32.72 percent of the support in the urns.
Meanwhile, with only seven electoral records pending to be counted, Lasso has 19.74 percent of the votes and Pérez with 19.38.
Once the recount was suspended, the CNE stated that it will be necessary to wait for the official result to meet Arauz’s rival in the ballot.
When the final data is published, the candidates will have the opportunity to make any objections they require.
In the general elections of February 7, more than 13 million 99 thousand voters were summoned to define the next president and vice president of the republic, the 137 members of the National Assembly and the five Andean parliamentarians for the next four years.