| Candidate Yaku Perez L outside the National Electoral Council CNE in Quito Ecuador Feb11 2021 | Photo EFE | MR Online

Court rejects vote recount claimed by Yaku Perez

Originally published: teleSUR English on March 15, 2021 (more by teleSUR English)  |

Ecuador’s Contentious Electoral Tribunal (TCE) Sunday rejected the vote recount of over 50 percent of the ballots and confirmed that U.S.-backed “eco-socialist” candidate Yaku Perez was out of the runoff election scheduled for April 11.

With this decision, TCE ratified that the Union for Hope Alliance (UNES) candidate Andres Arauz and Creating Opportunities (CREO) candidate Guillermo Lasso were the winners of the first round of elections held on Feb. 7.

Court judges unanimously issued the ruling two days before Arauz and Lasso kick off their new electoral campaign.

On March 8, Perez requested a recount of over 20,000 tally sheets from the first round of elections due to alleged inconsistencies.

“The claim of widespread fraud has no legal basis, so we ratify the results issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on February 17,” TCE stated.

The Indigenous leader called the ruling “deplorable” and added that “the TCE has just attacked the people’s will, wounding Ecuador’s democracy.”

In early March, the CNE reviewed 31 of the nearly 40,000 electoral records nationwide due to Perez’s insistence. In that recount, he received another 612 votes. However, that did not change the vote percentage he got on Feb. 7.