is set to choose its next president in an April runoff election after both incumbent President Daniel Noboa and leftist opponent Luisa Gonzalez failed to secure a majority in Sunday’s first round.
Voters chose from a field of 16 candidates in Sunday’s election, emerged as the top two frontrunners.
Official results showed Noboa garnered 44.4%, while Gonzalez had 43.9%, with 90% of the ballots counted.
The runoff vote is scheduled for April 13.
Once regarded as one of the safest countries in South America, Ecuador is experiencing its worst crisis in half a century due to drug cartel violence and a struggling economy.
Both Noboa and Gonzalez campaigned under heavy protection by special forces and bodyguards, in the wake of the events of the last election in 2023 when a leading candidate was assassinated.
Left presents tough competition
Opinion polls in Ecuador pointed to a safe reelection for Noboa, with some even predicting he would get enough votes to avoid a runoff. The young president has campaigned to continue his
“Today Ecuador has changed and wants to keep changing, it wants to consolidate its triumph. We are not a promise anymore, we are a reality in this country, which has taken a decision,” Noboa said at a closing campaign rally on Thursday in Quito.
However, Gonzalez, who had trailed heavily in pre-election surveys, posed a stronger-than-expected challenge.
For her part, she has also promised to tackle crime with major military and police operations, by pursuing allegedly corrupt judges and prosecutors, but also with a focus on implementing a social spending plan in the most violent areas.
“We can’t talk about controlling violence without thinking of social justice, of building an Ecuador with peace, not with war,” said Gonzalez, who is a protege of the controversial former leftist president Rafael Correa.
Drug trade violence plagues Ecuador
Ecuador has become a hub of drug trafficking in recent years when drug market patterns changed.
As US drug users turned to opiates, South American cartels shifted to fast-growing cocaine markets in Europe, Australia and Asia.
Since then, Ecuador’s numerous Pacific ports in Guayaquil and Manta have become a go-to route to ship the drugs from jungle labs in Colombia and Peru to Europe and the rest of the world.
Turf wars have raged between rival gangs; the murder rate has spiked, while kidnapping and extortion have soared to record highs.
Noboa declared a state of emergency, deploying the army across the country and gathering extraordinary executive powers to curb the violence.
But activists have accused Noboa’s government and his military approach as leading to human rights abuses.
The Ecuadorian government has stood by the policy, saying that it has reduced violent deaths by 15%, reduced , and facilitated the capture of major gang leaders.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse
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