ELECTION AFTERMATH: QUICK COUNT FOUNDERS AT 70%;

UNCLAS QUITO 002536 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS PLEASE PASS ALSO TO USOAS AND USAID/LAC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KDEM PGOV EC SUBJECT: ELECTION AFTERMATH: QUICK COUNT FOUNDERS AT 70%; SLOW COUNT COMMENCES ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) on October 16 unilaterally cancelled its $5.8 million quick count contract with Brazilian firm E-Vote after the firm failed to deliver results on time on election night. As a result, official results must await until after more labor-intensive vote certification and reporting are completed by the provincial election councils--which could take more than a week. Although results are not likely to vary much from the initial results, uncertainty generated by technical difficulties has fueled protests and claims of fraud from second place finisher, Rafael Correa. End Summary. ¶2. (U) E-Vote had promised presidential results would be reported to the central TSE and the public by 7:30 pm on October 15 and congressional results would be tabulated by midnight. The firm's system crashed on the morning after elections with only 70% of presidential results reported and little or none of the congressional results tabulated. While press earlier reported E-Vote executives had left the country, E-Vote country representative Santiago Murray issued a statement admitting the slowness of the quick count, denying any breach of contract and confirming E-Vote will remain in Ecuador. Several political parties have called for the arrest of E-Vote executives. (Note: Votes were manually counted in each of the more than 36,000 polling places by poll workers under TSE supervision; E-Vote was responsible for electronically delivering and compiling those results centrally. Those manual counts took place and are being sent to provincial TSE authorities; what fell short was the quick central tallying and reporting. End Note.) The TSE stopped payment of the remaining $2.9 million of the E-Vote contract, and hope to recover some information (not ballots) about the vote from the E-Vote executives. ¶3. (SBU) TSE officials tell us they are confident of their ability to do their own count of the votes within a week after election-day. That count has been ongoing since late on October 15, and is taking place in each of the provincial electoral commissions. Smaller provinces traditionally report results faster than the largest provinces. A TSE board member told the press that 3% of the results were reported on the morning of October 16, and predicted that count would rise to 50% by the end of the day. ¶4. (SBU) Jose Teran, the TSE's International Affairs Chief, admitted to us the E-Vote debacle represented a severe blow to the TSE's credibility, especially since many candidates, congressional deputies and the media were criticizing the costly contract in the days before the election. He also said E-Vote's failure is much worse than the problems in the last two elections. In 2004, Spanish firm Indra contracted to complete a quick count. While results came in slower than promised, the firm eventually completed the job. ¶5. (SBU) Ecuador radical leftist radio station La Luna is inviting listeners to protest against these developments in front of the well-protected TSE building; about 400 protesters have gathered. The OAS has convoked a meeting of member states to discuss this latest setback later on October 16, which we will attend. We have urged the TSE to reassure the public that all ballots are physically secure and that the absconding E-Vote executives did not get away with election materials. ¶6. (SBU) Comment: New uncertainty over the official vote count will likely be seized on by Correa to challenge results. It remains to be seen whether Correa and his supporters will be successful in sowing doubt among the public. Although all exit polls and quick counts reported thus far have had the same results, it will be hard but not impossible for public opinion to be swayed. To prevent this, we will continue to urge maximum transparency from the TSE. JEWELL