Ecuador’s president questions first-round election results in a claim ruled out by election observers

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa claimed, without evidence, that the first round of the country’s presidential race was rife with “irregularities” after he made it to the second round vote in April with a slim lead, which authorities called a “technical tie” with his leftist rival Luisa González.

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa claimed, without evidence, that the first round of the country’s presidential election was rife with “irregularities” after he made it to the second round with a slim lead — which authorities have called a technical tie with his leftist rival Luisa González. “There have been many irregularities,” Noboa said in a Tuesday interview streamed on the presidency’s Facebook and YouTube pages. “We kept counting, we kept checking in certain provinces that there were things that didn’t add up. They even didn’t add up with the OAS (Organization of American States) quick count, which gave us a higher figure.” Noboa even suggested that “armed groups” were forcing voters to cast their ballots for his opponent. After the interview, the OAS Electoral Observation Mission, which had been monitoring the election, issued a statement denying irregularities in the result. It said that “the results presented by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador coincide with the data obtained through the quick count conducted by the Mission, and remain within the margin of error.” It added that its mission has “neither identified nor received any indication of widespread irregularities that could alter the election results.”