Ecuadorans will choose between returning to socialism or preserving the conservative status quo in a presidential run-off set for October after Sunday’s first round produced a left-right clash rather than an outright winner.
Luisa Gonzalez, a lawyer close to divisive former socialist Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa, emerged as the front-runner with 33 percent of the first-round votes.
She is to go head-to-head with surprise second-place candidate Daniel Noboa, the youthful son of one of Ecuador’s richest men, who netted 24 percent of the votes.
Photo: AFP
After a tense day under heavy security, Ecuadoran President of the National Electoral Council Diana Atamaint said no candidate had hit the threshold to claim victory.
“We are heading to a second-round election on October 15,” she told journalists.
Noboa, 35, said the “youth” had chosen him to beat Correa’s party, while Gonzalez hailed her “triumph” in the first round.
“We are making history,” she said.
The left-right duel to replace unpopular conservative leader Guillermo Lasso comes after a chaotic campaign marred by violence, including the assassination of a leading candidate days ahead of the polls.
The small South American nation has in the past few years become a playground for foreign drug mafias seeking to export cocaine from its shores, stirring up a brutal war between local gangs. It hit a record of 26 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants last year, almost double 2021’s figure and higher than the rate in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.
The murder of journalist-turned-candidate Fernando Villavicencio just 11 days before the vote underscored the challenges facing Ecuador. Soldiers and police searched voters at polling stations, while some of the eight presidential candidates wore helmets and bulletproof vests to cast their ballots.
“The most serious problem is insecurity,” said voter Eva Hurtado, 40, as she left a polling station north of the capital, Quito, on Sunday morning. “So many crimes, assassinations, disappearances. We are afraid.”
Adding to the instability, Ecuador has been without a congress for three months after Lasso dissolved it and called a snap election to avoid an impeachment trial just two years after coming to power.
Gonzalez, who has positioned herself as a defender of Correa’s socialist legacy, has said he would be a close adviser if she is elected.
Correa was sentenced to eight years in jail after an investigation by Villavicencio into corruption and fled to Belgium where he has been living in exile for six years.
Villavicencio, who was second in the polls until his murder, was replaced by close friend and fellow journalist Christian Zurita, who came in third with 16 percent of votes. Zurita said hours before the vote he was receiving death threats on social media.
However, it was Noboa, who appeared in the only televised debate in a bulletproof jacket, who pulled off the biggest surprise of the day. He is the son of Alvaro Noboa, who sought Ecuador’s presidency five times and grew an empire based on bananas, the country’s main crop.
Additional reporting by AP
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