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

(CNN) — 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.”

Ecuador’s elections agency issued a statement on Tuesday, hours after Noboa’s interview, saying that it was committed to “guaranteeing fair and transparent elections.”

It was not only Noboa complaining about the vote. Prior to his allegations, González made a similar claim on Monday in an interview with local channel Teleamazonas, saying that there were “inconsistencies” in the vote in certain provinces throughout Ecuador.

“We do not trust CNE,” González added, without offering evidence to support her allegations.

The European Union’s observation mission to Ecuador pronounced the election “transparent, well-organized, and peaceful” on Tuesday, and pushed back against any allegations of fraud.

“Disinformation was rife, with particularly virulent narratives of fraud towards the end of the campaign,” the Election Observation Mission said in their statement, which did not mention either candidate by name.

Ruling by decree

The claims of electoral fraud come amid a slow erosion of democratic norms in Ecuador, according to security analyst Jean Paul Pinto, speaking to CNN from Ecuador’s capital Quito.

Pinto noted that the president has made many of his more notable decisions by decree, including deploying the army to Ecuador’s streets to combat gangs and building a new prison for 800 of the country’s most violent criminals.

Noboa last year stunned much of Latin America when he ordered police to storm the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas. The violation of diplomatic protocol led many leaders across the region to denounce Noboa’s actions.

“Maybe he thinks that the government is like the private sector,” Pinto mused. “In his companies, he can order everything, and he thinks that in the state, he can do the same thing. But it’s not possible.”

As to Gonzalez, Pinto said her claim might be due to her team being “sure they were going to win.”

Rampant crime has transformed the once tranquil country into one plagued by violence and turf wars between drug cartels.

Much of the violence has centered around the country’s coast, in provinces where Noboa’s campaign fared poorly. Guayas province, for example, experienced over 3,000 homicides in 2024, public data shows. According to the latest tallies on Wednesday, Gonzalez earned nearly 49% of the vote there compared to Noboa’s 43.7%.

“You have to understand, we have almost 10% of the population that votes for Luisa - not because they think Luisa is a good person,” said Pinto. “They vote for Luisa because they don’t want to vote for Noboa.”

Noboa’s statement about armed groups supposedly forcing voters to support his opponent is “dangerous,” Pinto said, “because he’s saying we have no sovereignty, we have no control over these areas.”

The assertion amounts to an endorsement from the sitting president that Ecuador is a “narco state,” Pinto added.

The-CNN-Wire
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