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Ecuador to hold runoff presidential vote between Moreno, Lasso

By Andrew V. Pestano
Election campaign posters for Ecuador's general elections hang along a street in Duran on Saturday. Ecuador will hold a runoff vote on April 2 after no candidate won the necessary 40 percent of support, the National Electoral Council said late Wednesday. Photo by Robert Puglla/EPA
Election campaign posters for Ecuador's general elections hang along a street in Duran on Saturday. Ecuador will hold a runoff vote on April 2 after no candidate won the necessary 40 percent of support, the National Electoral Council said late Wednesday. Photo by Robert Puglla/EPA

Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Ecuador's National Electoral Council, or CNE announced presidential contenders Lenin Moreno and Guillermo Lasso will face a runoff vote, which is expected to be a close contest.

CNE President Juan Pablo Pozo Bahamonde on Wednesday said the vote will be held on April 2. He said -- with 99.5 percent of votes counted -- that Moreno, outgoing left-wing President Rafael Correa's former vice president, received 39.3 percent of votes, while Lasso had 28.1 percent.

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Moreno needed to win 40 percent of the vote to win the presidency without a runoff. Lasso, Moreno's main electoral rival and a conservative who has vowed to reduce government spending and taxes, is expected to be more successful in the runoff as other opposition parties have rallied behind Lasso in support.

Cynthia Viteri, who placed third with 16 percent of votes in the first round, has called on her supporters to vote for Lasso.

Lasso's supporters celebrated the announcement of the runoff outside of the CNE building in Quito late Wednesday.

"I am grateful to all citizens who they were holding a vigil on the outskirts of the CNE, caring for their vote, in search of democracy," Lasso said in a statement on Thursday.

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Lasso, a center-right former banker, is running on an economic platform in which he promises to create 1 million new jobs within four years.

Moreno recently served as U.N. Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility. He became paraplegic after being shot in the back in 1998.

"We are ready for the second round because it gives me the opportunity to hear the concerns of Ecuadorians. The future will not be stopped," Moreno said in a statement on Thursday.

Pozo Bahamonde's announcement came in a video message, which is available to view online.

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