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WORLD NEWS A11
Leftist claims win in Ecuador election; rival cries foul
GONZALO SOLANO
Associated Press
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) —
Leftist candidate Lenin
Moreno appeared to have
won Ecuador’s presidential
election but his conserva-
tive rival refused to recog-
nize the results on Monday,
calling on his supporters to
take to the streets to guard
against fraud.
Sunday’s second-round
runoff in the Andean nation
of 16 million was seen as a
barometer of whether the
left, which had dominated
South American politics for
the past 15 years, could
stop a string of right-wing
victories across the region.
With more than 99 percent
of polling places counted,
Moreno had 51 percent of
the vote while conserva-
tive banker Guillermo Lasso
stood at just under 49 per-
cent.
Even as leaders from right-
wing governments in Latin
America began called
Moreno on Monday to of-
fer their congratulations,
Lasso vowed to keep up
the fight against the instal-
lation of an “illegitimate”
government.
“We’re on the correct side
of history. We won’t cross
our arms and stand by,” he
11 Indian sailors on small boat hijacked off Somali coast
JON GAMBRELL
ABDI GULED
Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)
— Somali pirates have
seized a small boat, and its
11 Indian crew members,
and taken the vessel to
along the central coast, a
state official said Monday.
It is the latest ship targeted Somali state of Galmudug.
by Somalia’s resurgent hi-
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, left, and presidential candidate Lenin Moreno of ruling party
Alianza Pais, wave to supporters from the government palace balcony in Quito, Ecuador, Mon-
day, April 3, 2017. Moreno appeared to have won Ecuador’s presidential election but his conser-
vative rival refused to recognize the results on Monday, calling on his supporters to take to the
streets to guard against fraud.
said on Twitter. “We will ex-
haust all political and legal
channels in Ecuador and
abroad to respect the will
of the people who called
for a change.”
Key to Lasso’s challenge
of the results in all of Ecua- which it says has become
dor’s 24 provinces was the
results of three exit polls
that showed him winning.
One by pollster Cedatos,
jackers.
The pirates on Monday
afternoon anchored the
sailboat on the coast off El-
hur, 50 kilometers (31 miles)
south of Hobyo, which was
a center of the piracy that
was rampant several years
ago, said Ahmed Mo-
hamed, an official with the
Local elders are trying to
which accurately predict-
ed the results of the first
round, gave him a victory
by six percentage points.
Part of the problem is the
opposition’s distrust of the
National Electoral Council,
an appendage of the ex-
ecutive in the way the
electoral board in Venezu-
ela has all but lost indepen- out in Guayaquil, where
negotiate with the pirates
to secure the release of
the crew and the boat, he
said. Somali pirates often
release boats chartered by
Somali businessmen with-
out ransom. The attack on
the small ship happened
Saturday as the vessel
passed through the narrow
channel between Yemen’s
Socotra Island and the So-
Tuesday 4 April 2017
Lasso is from, before riot
police before pushed back
protesters with tear gas.
But so far he’s failed to pres-
ent any evidence of vote
tampering except for a
(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) single voting act of 248 bal-
lots from a rural area whose
dence under socialist Presi- tally is says was reversed in
dent Nicolas Maduro, a key favor of Moreno when sent
ally of Correa. to the National Electoral
On election night, thou- Council’s headquarters.
sands of outraged Lasso On Monday the streets
supporters shouting “fraud” were relatively calm al-
crashed through metal bar- though a few dozen Lasso
ricades to almost reach the die-hards gathered out-
entrance of the electoral side the electoral council’s
council’s headquarters in heavily-guarded head-
Quito. Scuffles also broke quarters.
Lasso presented his com-
plaints Monday to an elec-
toral mission sent by Orga-
nization of American States,
which has yet to comment.
But several regional leaders
offered their congratula-
tions and a local electoral
watchdog that carried out
a quick count of its own
said Monday that Moreno
had a 1.6 point edge in
their sample, which is con-
sidered highly accurate.
Correa accused Lasso sup-
porters of trying to deny
the results and provoke vio-
lence. On Monday, he sent
a flurry of tweets saying the
Lasso campaign had hired
Cedatos.q
mali coast, said Graeme ship common in regional
Gibbon Brooks, CEO of waters, initially was heading
Dryad Maritime, a shipping from Dubai to Bosaso, So-
security firm. He said the pi- malia. Malini Shankar of the
rates were taking the vessel Indian Directorate General
to the Eyl area of northern of Shipping told the Press
Somalia. There was con- Trust of India news agency
flicting information over the that the vessel was instead
boat’s name and where it heading to Yemen, where
was heading. a Saudi-led war against Shi-
Brooks said the small dhow, ite rebels holding its capital
a traditional wooden sailing has raged for years.q