Ecuador begins presidential vote recount in 5 provinces

The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador began on Friday a vote recount in five provinces where objections have been received, concerning the results of the second round of the country's presidential elections on April 2.

On Tuesday, the CNE declared in its official results that Lenin Moreno, candidate of the ruling PAIS Alliance, had won presidential runoff with 51.16 percent of valid votes, while opposition challenger Guillermo Lasso, garnered 48.84 percent, with 99.65 percent of votes counted.

However, Lasso refused to accept CNE's results and noted that he was the victim of electoral fraud.

In a press conference Friday, Diego Tello, CNE's national coordinator of electoral processes said that recounts were happening in the provinces of Chimborazo, Imbabura, Pichincha, Cotopaxi and Carchi, and the recount was being observed by delegates from both Moreno's PAIS Alliance and Lasso's CREO movement.

Although election observers declared they found no evidence that the results were false, the charges lodged with the CNE claimed that there was a difference between the number of people who had voted on the day and the number of votes that had been counted.

Juan Pablo Pozo, president of the CNE, denied this week that there had been any fraud and called the country's ballot system a "success."

Source: XINHUA