Ecuador presidential election results contested and irregularities under the spotlight.

Defending the vote in Ecuador

Credible exit polls had Guillermo Lasso winning by 6.04%

Today Ecuadorians went to vote in their presidential election to determine who will be Rafael Correa's successor. President Correa has been in power for a decade presiding over the systematic gutting of the free press in Ecuador and his designated successor is Lenín Moreno.

The opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso won in credible exit polls by 53.02% vs. Moreno's 46.98%. Unfortunately the official election site apparently shut down for a bit and came back with numbers favoring the official candidate. There is a bit of deja vu observing this play out with the Venezuelan presidential election of 2012 between Nicolas Maduro and Henrique Capriles. Back then I made the following observation that also apply to Ecuador today: 

Winning the vote in Venezuela is not enough. Having an opposition structure in place to ensure that the vote and count is fair along with the capability to mobilize large numbers of people into a coherent strategy to ensure that the election results are recognized and that the election be seen not as the end of a dictatorship but as the beginning of a process of democratic transition.

However there is a key difference and that is that Candidate Lasso is not backing down, the way Capriles did, and is calling on his supporters to take to the streets while providing evidence over his twitter feed of irregularities in the election and denouncing vote fraud.

Este es solo un ejemplo de actas que demuestran inconsistencias. Han cambiado sus votos por los nuestros. pic.twitter.com/soFgCgc3y7

— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) April 3, 2017

Translation of above embedded tweet: "This is just one example of ballots that show inconsistencies. They have changed our votes to theirs."

There is a nonviolent struggle underway in Ecuador to ensure that the vote be respected, irregularities examined (including in Miami), and a recount. Friends of freedom should maintain a focus on events unfolding in that South American nation.

The events in Venezuela over the past week with the Maduro regime's puppet Supreme Court stripping away the last pretense of a democracy may have negatively impacted Moreno at the polls today.