"They've toyed with popular will," the former banker Lasso said on Sunday night, asking for a recount and saying he was the real winner of the vote.
Lasso claimed he would increase jobs, cut taxes and make Julian Assange leave the country.
The alternative offered by Lasso was a pro-business, pro-austerity programme that promised tax cuts and more jobs, though Lasso was plagued with accusations of tax avoidance through dozens of offshore accounts.
He also promised to ask Assange to leave the Ecuadorean Embassy in London within a month of securing a mandate because he said the asylum granted to the WikiLeaks founder was posing a burden on the country’s taxpayers.
Lasso also pandered to fear:
"[T]here’s a path to Venezuela or a path to democracy and freedom.”
Moreno, who was the current President's vice-president unitl 2013, has been in a wheelchair since a robbery in 1998 left him disabled. He's been a champion of rights for the disabled ever since.
As Correa’s vice president from 2007 to 2013, Moreno became a high-profile advocate for disabled rights. He helped launch a program called Manuela Espejo, where brigades of young people went searching for disabled shut-ins.
He pushed for inclusive labor laws, wheelchair accessible crosswalks and monthly $50 stipends for those unable to work or who are taking care of disabled relatives. Now, almost 500,000 people are registered with the National Council for Equality of those with Disabilities. The push made Moreno a national icon and burnished his international credentials. (He was a U.N. Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility before throwing his hat into the ring for president.)
Moreno's positions:
[He]promises to bolster social welfare in oil-rich Ecuador, with benefits for the disabled, single mothers, youth, and the elderly.
Ecuador is a tiny country, but its election is viewed as a bellweather for the region.
The election will also have regional ramifications. Should Moreno win, it will cement Ecuador’s reputation as a bastion of the left in Latin America. Should he lose, it will be taken as another sign of the region’s retreating “pink wave”, following defeats for the left in an Argentinian election and a Bolivian referendum, plus the impeachment and ousting of Workers’ party president Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.
I'm happy for Ecuadorians that they chose their leader more wisely and responsibly than Americans. Congratulations, President Elect Moreno.
