QUITO, March 28 – Ecuador’s National Electoral Council on Wednesday announced incumbent President Rafael Correa(Pic) won a new term in office based on results of the presidential election held on Feb 17, Xinhua news agency reported. The electoral authority said Correa and his running mate Jorge Glas garnered 57.17 percent of the votes or 4,918,482 votes out of a total of 9,467,062, and declared Correa to be president and Glas as vice president.
Correa’s seven rivals failed to get enough votes to take the electoral contest to a second round, with Guillermo Lasso, a challenger representing the nation’s political conservatives, obtaining just 22.68 percent of the votes. Correa, who has ruled Ecuador since 2007, will start the new term of office, his third, on May 24 when his current term ends. The third term will take him to the year of 2017.
Correa was first reelected in April 2009 in early elections called by a new 2008 Constitution. Domingo Paredes, chief of the electoral body, said his organisation would deliver the winners their certificates on April 9. The electoral body also confirmed the ruling party’s win of majority in the country’s congress. The legislators will take office in May.
BERNAMA
