Allegations of former correists undermined Moreno´s credibility, analysts say

The accusations of corruption against the government of Ecuador thrown through social networks and from hiding by the former Minister of Hydrocarbons, Carlos Pareja Yannuzelli, benefited the presidential hopeful of the political opposition, Guillermo Lasso, according to analysts.

“The Capaya effect (as Pareja Yannuzelli is known) was used by all the candidates” who sought the presidency on February 19 in the first round of elections, “it was apparently capitalized by Guillermo Lasso,” analysts of the Llorente and Cuenca Alejandra Rivas and Edgar Vásquez firm point out.

The presidency of Ecuador will be defined on April 2 in a second round of the elections, as in the first round, the candidate of the pro-government movement Alianza País (left), Lenin Moreno, and the opposition party CREO (right center), Guillermo Lasso, were the two most voted.

However, neither of them won the necessary votes to win in a single round.

Moreno got the 39.36% of the votes and Lasso the 28.09%, but in Ecuador, to win in the first round, it is necessary to get more than 50% of the votes, or at least the 40% with a difference of ten percentage points over the second most voted candidate.

Rivas and Vasquez said that Lasso “came out unscathed” in the first round “of the opposition cracking” and now seeks to get the support from the government opponents, while Moreno “claims to have the anti-Lasso votes, that would confirm the victory obtained in the first round.”