Last Thursday, the CNE approved the numerical results of the second round of the election and rejected other claims. This Monday, with four votes in favor and one abstention, it decided to reject the claim.

Francisco Estarellas, attorney general for the alliance that sponsored Luisa González’s presidential candidacy, filed the complaint with the CNE last weekend. He explained to local media that the document included all the observations and evidence of irregularities found and, as an example of the inconsistencies, he attached 1,021 tally sheets from the April 13 elections.

According to Estarellas, “there are a series of procedures that have not been followed,” and noted that a total of 16,000 ballots submitted with problems have been filed. “There are flaws in the system, and what we want is for all of this to reveal the irregularities that have occurred and how our candidate, Luisa González, has been harmed,” she emphasized.

Estarellas indicated that they will appeal to all established bodies. “Afterwards, we will also go to the Electoral Contentious Tribunal (TCE), and if necessary, we will go to international bodies to correct all the irregularities in the process,” she said.

This Tuesday morning, former presidential candidate Luisa González reiterated that during the elections, her rival and other state institutions not only violated the law and the Constitution by buying votes or using public funds, but also that there was alleged fraud. Among her warnings to Radio Pichincha and Radio Armónica’s Primera Plana program is the “suspicious discrepancy” in the number of voters on the electoral roll between the first and second rounds. “This is grounds for annulling the elections; there can be no variation in the number of voters,” she reiterated, noting that the tally sheets were repeatedly altered and uploaded to the system with deletions and modifications.

Rodríguez emphasized that as president of the RC, she will not recognize the elections because, in her opinion, they are “illegitimate, illegal, and unconstitutional,” and that they were not “fair or free.”

International observers ruled out fraud in the Ecuadorian elections; however, they noted in their reports that the process was marked by irregularities, including the lack of a license for current President Daniel Noboa, the misuse of public resources, and the declaration of a state of emergency.

jrr/llp/rc/avr