Left-Wing Candidate Heading for Victory in Ecuador Election
- Moreno ahead by narrow margin, electoral council data show
- Opposition candidate alleges fraud and calls for protests
This article is for subscribers only.
Ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno is heading for a narrow victory in Ecuador’s presidential election, with the opposition claiming fraud after they led in the first exit polls, raising the prospect of a political crisis in the oil producing nation.
With 99 percent of the votes counted, ruling coalition Moreno was leading with 51.2 percent of the votes to 48.8 percent for conservative candidate Guillermo Lasso, according to the National Electoral Council. Exit polls by independent pollster Cedatos initially showed Lasso had the lead. The nation’s dollar bonds fell as much as 2.7 percent, pushing the yield on notes maturing in 2024 to 9.3 percent, the highest since December.