The second round of the presidential elections in Ecuador, on October 15, will be a confrontation between the left, represented by Luisa González, and the right, led by Daniel Noboa, according to the results of the vote on Sunday and known this Monday.
Ecuador went to the polls this Sunday to elect the next president of the country, but no candidate reached the necessary numbers to be elected in a first round.
According to the AFP news agency, Luisa González, 45, a member of the Revolución Ciudadana party -led by former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017)-, came first in the first round of the presidential elections, with 33%. . of votes
The youngest candidate to participate in these elections, the conservative Daniel Noboa (ADN), 35 years old and the son of a billionaire, surprised by winning second place (24%) in the vote.
According to the legislation of the country -with more than 17 million inhabitants-, a presidential candidate needs to obtain 50% of the votes, or 40% if he is 10 points ahead of his closest rival, to win the election in the first round. . .
The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador confirmed this Sunday that 82.26% of registered voters in the presidential and legislative elections exercised their right to vote, which represents an abstention of 17.74%.
For the third time in a row, the dispute for the Ecuadorian presidency will be between forces of the right and left, in a country devastated by corruption, violence and drug trafficking.
When Rafael Correa left power in 2017, his former vice president, Lenín Moreno, won the second round of elections against former banker Guillermo Lasso.
Four years later, in 2021, Guillermo Lasso won the presidential race over Andrés Arauz, who is the current vice-presidential candidate in González’s lineup.
The winner of the October 15 vote will govern until 2025, to complete the term of Lasso, who chose to call early elections -through the constitutional clause called “cross death”- to avoid his dismissal by the National Assembly for charges of corruption.
In recent years, Ecuador has been plagued by drug trafficking and witnessed record levels of homicide, with massacres between rival gangs in prisons.
About a week and a half ago, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was ranked fifth in the polls, was assassinated during a rally in a busy central area of the country’s capital, Quito.
Last Monday, Pedro Briones, a member of Revolución Ciudadana and one of the party’s leaders in the province of Esmeraldas, was assassinated in northwestern Ecuador.
Rider Sánchez, candidate for federal deputy for the Atuemos coalition, was assassinated in Quininde, in the province of Esmeraldas in July.
In February, when Ecuadorians elected regional leaders, including mayors, there were 15 attacks on candidates and two assassinations.
Source: TSF
