Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa (C) and Ecuadorian ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno (R) attend the change of guard ceremony in Quito, Ecuador, on April 3, 2017. Xinhua/SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved.
During the first round of voting in the Ecuadorian Presidential elections, while commenting for one of the national TV channels, a friend claimed that a run-off would provide the eventual winner with more legitimacy. I did not agree. I told him so, and said I felt that a close race, especially in the eventuality of a win for the government candidate, might well provoke a campaign to destabilise the new administration similar to the one we have seen in Venezuela over the last few years. It might turn out to be, I suggested, the worst of all possible worlds.
Now, watching Guillermo Lasso, the losing candidate (until proved otherwise) in the April 2 election, ramping up the rhetoric and vowing not to accept the result because Lenin Moreno “did not win”, while his supporters block roads, burn tires and call for the armed forces to intervene, I feel as if I am watching a film whose plot I already know. I should say out of respect for my friend’s opinion that if Moreno had won by a narrow margin in that first round, or possibly by any margin, the script would almost certainly have been the same. There is nothing coincidental about what is happening on the streets of Ecuador.
