Ecuador’s First Round Presidential Election 2021

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Ecuadorian presidential candidate Andrés Arauz, protegé of former President Rafael Correa, took first place in the election on February 7, 2021, and secured a place in the runoff election on April 11, 2021. The 36-year-old economist ran on promises to make U.S. $1 billion in direct cash payments to families and to disavow the conditions of a U.S. $ 6.5 billion IMF financing package. Yet a week later, it is still unclear who will face him in the runoff. His would-be rival on the right, Guillermo Lasso, promised more foreign investment and increased oil production, but could not overcome his image as a conservative banker. And the lawyer and indigenous activist Yaku Pérez ran on an “anti-Correísmo” and anti-mining platform. Though Lasso seemed to have a slight lead, Pérez demanded, and got, a recount. Adding the pandemic and an economic crisis to the fragmenting political scene, commentators tried to sort it all out.

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