Lasso remains defiant following election recount, claims ballots were ‘switched’

Former presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso says he refuses not respect the official election results, including Tuesday’s partial recount, continuing to insist that the vote counting process was fraudulent.

Lasso sticks to his guns.

“We will never recognize the victory of the candidate that the election commission is calling the president-elect,” Lasso said at Wednesday news conference. “The corrupt government currently in power used the entire apparatus of the state to make sure its candidate won,” he said.

Speaking at a Guayaquil hotel, Lasso thanked his supporters for continuing to believe in his cause, urging them to “remain in the streets until justice is secured.”

Lasso complained that Tuesday’s partial vote recount was not legitimate since members of his Creo party were not in attendance. Creo was invited to participate but declined based on its unmet demand that the recount include 100% of the votes. “The entire process was conducted by the government and its confederates and we were not witness to it.”

Earlier Wednesday, his vice presidential running mate, Andrés Páez, said that many of the vote recounted Tuesday were switched by the Correa government. “This election was stolen and we will not stand for it.” Lasso later repeated the claim of switched ballots and said other “illegal activities” occurred at the recount as well.

Meanwhile, Lasso supporter Jaime Nebot, mayor of Guayaquil, again asked Lasso to produce proof for his charges. “Until we have verifiable evidence all this is just noise,” he said.