Conservative ex-banker Guillermo Lasso won Ecuador’s presidential runoff on Sunday with 52.5% of the vote, declaring himself president-elect with more than 96% of ballots counted. His opponent, socialist economist\u00a0Andres Arauz, received\u00a047.4% of the votes\u00a0and conceded the race.<\/p>\n
“It’s a day in which all Ecuadoreans decided their future, they have used their vote to express the need for change and the desire for better days,” Lasso told supporters in a victory speech.<\/p>\n
“I congratulate him on his electoral triumph today and I will show him our democratic convictions,” Arauz said in comments conceding the race to Lasso.<\/p>\n
Arauz previously declared victory earlier in the day, citing an exit poll that showed him with a 1.6% lead. He won in the first round of the election in February but failed to win enough of the vote to avoid a runoff.<\/p>\n