Ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno looks to be heading to victory in Ecuador’s presidential run-off but his rival has refused to recognise the results, claiming he was the victim of fraud.
The dispute could set the stage for protests in the historically turbulent Andean nation of 16 million people.
The election was being watched closely for whether it marked a comeback for left-wing candidates after a string of right-wing victories across Latin America, with almost 96% of votes counted, the National Electoral Council said Mr Moreno had 51% of the vote to banker Guillermo Lasso’s 49%.
A difference of 214,000 votes separated the two candidates with about twice the number of votes left to count.
Mr Lasso demanded a recount after three exit polls showed him winning. He also questioned why results that took three days to calculate following the first round of voting in February were announced so quickly in Sunday’s run-off.
“This is very sickening, we’re not going to allow it,” said Mr Lasso, who called on supporters to protest peacefully but firmly.
“They’ve crossed a line, which is pretending to abuse the people’s will” and install an “illegitimate” government, he added.
So far the only evidence of possible fraud presented by his campaign are the results in one tiny provincial voting centre that it said were reversed when they were reported to electoral authorities in Quito thousands of outraged Lasso supporters shouting “fraud” broke through metal barricades and almost reached the entrance of the electoral council’s headquarters in Quito before being pushed back by police.
A similar scuffle took place outside the electoral offices in Guayaquil.
Moreno supporters celebrated and accused their opponents of trying to disavow results. The head of the electoral council appealed for calm.
“Ecuador deserves that its political actors show ethical responsibility in recognizing the democratic will expressed by the people at the voting booths,” said National Electoral Council president Juan Pablo Pozo.
“Not a single vote has been given or taken away from anyone.”
Three exit polls, including one that accurately predicted the first-round results, showed Mr Lasso winning by as much as six points. A quick count of votes by a respected local watchdog found there was a technical tie with a difference of less than 0.6 points separating the candidates. The group did not say which candidate had the advantage.
The result was a major setback to a recent right-wing surge in Latin American politics and provided continuity to President Rafael Correa’s “Citizens’ Revolution”.
“The moral fraud of the right wing won’t go unpunished,” Mr Correa said on Twitter, referring to what Mr Moreno called misleading exit polls that had “lied” to his rival.
Earlier, a jubilant Mr Lasso claimed victory and told supporters in Guayaquil that he would free political prisoners and heal divisions created by 10 years of iron-fisted rule by Mr Correa.
Before the election, he said he would evict WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorean embassy in London within 30 days of taking office, while Mr Moreno has said he will allow him to stay.
With Ecuador’s economy slated to shrink by 2.7% this year as oil prices remain low and with a majority of citizens stating in surveys that they are eager for change, analysts had been anticipating that Ecuadoreans would back Mr Lasso and join the growing list of Latin American nations shifting to the right.
But in the final weeks of the race, Mr Moreno had inched ahead in polls amid an aggressive campaign led by Mr Correa to cast Mr Lasso as a wealthy, out-of-touch politician who profited from the country’s 1999 banking crisis.