Ecuador to recount all disputed presidential votes

April 14 (UPI) -- Ecuador's National Electoral Council said it will recount all presidential ballots disputed by the respective parties of Guillermo Lasso and Lenín Moreno, who was declared the winner.

The council, or CNE, on Thursday approved a resolution that will trigger a recount of the ballots objected by Lasso's CREO-SUMA political coalition and Moreno's Alianza PAIS movement, of which outgoing President Rafael Correa is president.

The CNE will recount 4,243 ballots disputed by CREO-SUMA and 714 ballots disputed by Alianza PAIS.

"On this basis, the CNE decided to give way to the recount, vote to vote, of 100 percent of these acts," the CNE said in a statement.

CNE President Juan Pablo Pozo Bahamonde said the action was taken "for the sake of transparency and for the tranquility of the country."

"We reiterate that due to legality and legitimacy effects, we are going to open the ballot boxes determined in the legal-technical report to show the country the truth. We have nothing to hide!" Pozo Bahamonde said.

The recount will take place in Quito on Tuesday. The CNE determined Moreno won the second-round presidential election on April 2.

Moreno won 51.14 percent of the vote compared to Lasso's 48.86 percent. The ballots set for recount would not likely change the overall result, as Lasso would need tens of thousands of additional votes in his favor.

Moreno served as leftist outgoing President Rafael Correa's vice president from 2007-13 before serving as U.N. Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility. He became paraplegic after being shot in the back in 1998.

Lasso, a center-right former banker who had the support of other opposition parties, ran on an economic platform in which he promised to create 1 million new jobs within four years. He is a conservative who vowed to reduce government spending and taxes.

On Thursday, prior to the CNE announcement, Lasso said, "We will accept nothing less than the opening of all ballot boxes to the recounting of all votes."

Members of the opposition have been protesting for weeks after the CNE announced Moreno won, saying electoral fraud occurred.

"We will not allow them to ridicule the people," Lasso said in a statement.