United States-backed 鈥渆cosocialist鈥 candidate Yaku Perez has been excluded from Ecuador鈥檚 runoff election scheduled for April 11, following a decision by Ecuador鈥檚 Contentious Electoral Tribunal (TCE) to reject a request for a vote recount of more than 50% of ballots cast.
The judges unanimously issued the ruling two days before leftist Alliance for Hope candidate Andres Arauz and the right-wing Creating Opportunities candidate Guillermo Lasso kick off their campaigns for the run-off election.
Arauz won the largest number of votes on February 7, against 15 other candidates. Arauz 32.7% of the vote, but fell short of the 40% needed to win the election outright.
Perez requested a recount of more than 20,000 tally sheets from the first election round on March 8, due to alleged inconsistencies.
鈥淭he claim of widespread fraud has no legal basis, so we ratify the results issued by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on February 17,鈥 said the TCE.
Perez called the ruling 鈥渄eplorable鈥 and said 鈥渢he TCE has just attacked the people鈥檚 will, wounding Ecuador鈥檚 democracy鈥.
In early March, the CNE reviewed 31 of the nearly 40,000 electoral records nationwide, on Perez鈥檚 insistence. In that recount, he received another 612 votes. However, that did not change the percentage of votes he got on February 7.
Indigenous groups have been divided over Perez鈥檚 candidacy.
[Compiled from .]