QUITO, Ecuador _ This Andean nation could face days of uncertainty and tension as election authorities said Sunday's contentious presidential vote remains too close to call _ casting doubt on whether there will be a runoff.
The warning came as ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno assured his followers he was on the cusp of winning outright, and the opposition raised the specter of fraud.
National Electoral Council (CNE) President Juan Pablo Pozo said authorities were pushing forward with the count as quickly possible but that it could take as long as three days to determine if a runoff is merited, and five to eight days to have definitive results. While he acknowledged the delay would only heighten tensions, he said the results could come down to the final ballots.
"It's a fight over each and every vote as to whether there is a runoff or not," he said.
With 89 percent of the ballots counted, the CNE said Moreno had won 39.12 percent of the vote versus his nearest rival, former banker Guillermo Lasso, with 28.30 percent.
At issue is whether Moreno can break the 40 percent mark and keep a 10-point lead over Lasso. If that happens, he would win the election outright. Otherwise, the two will meet in an April 2 runoff, where the opposition, which fielded six other candidates, will likely rally behind Lasso.
On Monday, Moreno said he's hoping that votes from the dense coastal province of Manabi and ballots from abroad will push him over the line. The ruling Alianza Pais party has traditionally done well with Ecuadorean emigrants.
With 57 percent of the vote counted from the United States and Canada, for example, Moreno was winning 38 percent of the vote versus Lasso's 30 percent.
Earlier in the day, the CNE had said it might have definitive results by noon. But as the count dragged on, hundreds of people gathered around their offices in Quito and the coastal city of Guayaquil waving flags and chanting anti-government slogans.
Gorki Campuzano, a 67-year-old architect, said the last decade under Rafael Correa had led to widespread corruption that was sinking the country. He said he feared the government might commit fraud to keep all its financial crimes under wraps.
"We knew this was going to happen," he said of the contentious vote. "The government is so stained by corruption that they are going to try to hold on to power at all costs."
Lasso's vice president, Andres Paez, rallied the crowds in front of the CNE in the capital warning the nation that the only way Moreno could avoid a runoff is through fraud.
"It's impossible for them to hit the 40 percent, mathematically impossible," he said.
Borja, the CNE head, advised both leading parties to measure their words and invited them to the election headquarters to explain the delays in the process.
"These elections will not be won with speculation but with votes," he said. "We are not going to give away or take a single vote from anyone."
He said recounts might take place in some jurisdictions where ballot tallies didn't match the number of confirmed voters. But those cases represented less than 6 percent of all votes, he explained.
At stake are two very different visions of the country. Moreno, 63, was Correa's vice president from 2007-2013 and he has vowed to continue the president's socialist policies.
Lasso, a 61-year-old former banker, has said he wants to root out corruption, create jobs and forge an environment where the private sector can thrive again.
Nicole Davila, a housewife, had come down to the electoral office in Quito to "defend her vote." She acknowledged that Correa had built roads, hospitals and schools, but she said the economy had suffered in the process. Jobs are hard to find, she said, and the middle class had seen its quality of life erode despite an oil boom.
"With all the money he had, he had the obligation to build roads, but now he wants us to be thankful for it," she said. "We can't eat roads and pavement."
