QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador will hold a runoff election to choose a successor for President Rafael Correa, the country’s electoral commission ruled, in a vote being closely watched around Latin America.
The announcement on Wednesday confirmed earlier indications that the governing party candidate, Lenín Moreno, and a conservative former banker, Guillermo Lasso, would face off in a second round on April 2.
Mr. Moreno led the nine-candidate field in the election on Sunday with 39.4 percent of votes, just short of the 40 percent threshold needed for an outright victory. Mr. Lasso finished second, with 28.1 percent.
Mr. Correa, the leftist leader of Ecuador’s so-called citizens’ revolution, was first elected president in 2007. He won praise for leading the country into a period of stability after a severe economic crisis that drove three presidents from office, but he has also been accused of having an authoritarian streak, particularly toward the news media, the opposition and the judiciary.
The sheen on his administration was also tarnished as once-flush government budgets were cut and thousands of employees at state-run companies were laid off after a decline in oil revenue.
The Ecuadorean economy is forecast to shrink 2.7 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, and many analysts expect Mr. Correa’s successor to seek a bailout from the fund.
The election on Sunday was the first in a long time in which the Ecuadorean authorities did not declare a winner on the night of the balloting, leading Mr. Lasso and many of his supporters to level accusations of fraud, but no evidence of irregularities was reported.
In a series of posts on Twitter on Tuesday morning, Mr. Correa described his opponents as “losers” and accused them of taking advantage of the vote-by-vote count to prompt violence and talk of fraud.
Late Monday, hundreds of Mr. Lasso’s supporters gathered in heavy rain outside the National Electoral Council in Quito, the capital, for a second night to demand that a runoff be confirmed. By early Tuesday, their numbers had thinned considerably.
The electoral authorities had appealed for calm, saying that it would take time to know if a runoff would be necessary. They attributed the delay to the slow arrival of ballots from remote regions and consulates abroad, as well as to inconsistencies that needed to be sorted through.
Observers from the Washington-based Organization of American States told the electoral authorities that it was important to count the ballots as quickly and as transparently as possible, and they urged the election commission to continue informing the public of their progress.
Conservative leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Peru have come to power in the past 18 months, after the end of a commodities boom that had helped bolster leftist candidates like Mr. Correa.
QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador will hold a runoff election to choose a successor for President Rafael Correa, the country’s electoral commission ruled, in a vote being closely watched around Latin America.
The announcement on Wednesday confirmed earlier indications that the governing party candidate, Lenín Moreno, and a conservative former banker, Guillermo Lasso, would face off in a second round on April 2.
Mr. Moreno led the nine-candidate field in the election on Sunday with 39.4 percent of votes, just short of the 40 percent threshold needed for an outright victory. Mr. Lasso finished second, with 28.1 percent.
Mr. Correa, the leftist leader of Ecuador’s so-called citizens’ revolution, was first elected president in 2007. He won praise for leading the country into a period of stability after a severe economic crisis that drove three presidents from office, but he has also been accused of having an authoritarian streak, particularly toward the news media, the opposition and the judiciary.
The sheen on his administration was also tarnished as once-flush government budgets were cut and thousands of employees at state-run companies were laid off after a decline in oil revenue.
The Ecuadorean economy is forecast to shrink 2.7 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, and many analysts expect Mr. Correa’s successor to seek a bailout from the fund.
The election on Sunday was the first in a long time in which the Ecuadorean authorities did not declare a winner on the night of the balloting, leading Mr. Lasso and many of his supporters to level accusations of fraud, but no evidence of irregularities was reported.
In a series of posts on Twitter on Tuesday morning, Mr. Correa described his opponents as “losers” and accused them of taking advantage of the vote-by-vote count to prompt violence and talk of fraud.
Late Monday, hundreds of Mr. Lasso’s supporters gathered in heavy rain outside the National Electoral Council in Quito, the capital, for a second night to demand that a runoff be confirmed. By early Tuesday, their numbers had thinned considerably.
The electoral authorities had appealed for calm, saying that it would take time to know if a runoff would be necessary. They attributed the delay to the slow arrival of ballots from remote regions and consulates abroad, as well as to inconsistencies that needed to be sorted through.
Observers from the Washington-based Organization of American States told the electoral authorities that it was important to count the ballots as quickly and as transparently as possible, and they urged the election commission to continue informing the public of their progress.
Conservative leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Peru have come to power in the past 18 months, after the end of a commodities boom that had helped bolster leftist candidates like Mr. Correa.
We’re interested in your feedback on this page. Tell us what you think.
