Indeed, more ‘null votes’ than those for Arauz were recorded in six different provinces. The impact of the campaign was amplified by the high rate of abstention (around 20 per cent) due to the pandemic. The result was a significant increase in blank or spoiled votes: from around six per cent in 2017 to over 17 per cent this time. Several analysts have made reference to the presence of a ‘ third candidate’ in the guise of Perez’s campaign for a ‘null vote’, which was backed by his party Pachakutik, the indigenous movement CONAIE, and other leftist organisations. However, on this occasion it did not work out that way. Once again it appeared that Ecuador faced a binary choice between pro- and anti-Correa factions. Instead the run-off vote acted as a rerun of 2017, when Lasso faced the chosen representative of correismo.
Nevertheless, Lasso benefited from the intervention of the National Electoral Council, which ruled out Perez’s calls for an extensive recount, prompting claims of fraud. In the first round Lasso had effectively tied with former indigenous movement leader and anti-mining activist Yaku Perez. Arauz was joined in the second round by Guillermo Lasso, a former banker and pro-business candidate running for the third time. For all the differences, however, both countries face a future of deepened instability amid political fragmentation, economic crisis and the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.įirst to Ecuador where, as previously noted, Andres Arauz – economist and protégé of former president Rafael Correa – emerged as the front-runner from the first round. Meanwhile, the first round of voting in Peru threw up a surprise result with the emergence of radical anti-system candidate Pedro Castillo to face off against Keiko Fujimori, daughter of an imprisoned former president and herself under investigation for corruption. In Ecuador, a run-off vote saw the return of the right with the election of former banker Guillermo Lasso. On April 11 both Ecuador and Peru held elections.
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