Ecuador goes to a second round in a disputed choice between Noboa and González

The Ecuadorians will go to a second electoral round in April before the disputed Sunday election between the current ruler Daniel Noboa, a right -wing millionaire who seeks to stay another four years in power, and the opponent of the left Luisa González, heiress of the former president Rafael Correa .

With more than 80% of the counting, Noboa and González maintained such close percentages of votes – with a distance of less than 0.3 percentage points between the two – that was in the air who won the first electoral round.

The president added 44.43% of the votes, while his rival accumulated 44.17%.

«If the trend is maintained, the Ecuadorians will return to the polls on April 13,» said the president of the National Electoral Council, Diana Atamaint, in the first official pronouncement after more than five hours after the end of the vote.

Atamaint also assured that the transmission and publication of results would continue uninterruptedly «until the last vote is counted and the last act with inconsistencies is recontnted.»

Next, the opposition candidate went out to talk to her followers and assured that there was a «technical draw» before the disputed election. As the counting progressed, González was cutting the bulky advantage to which the first preliminary results pointed out.

The trend, said the candidate of the citizen revolution, was that her candidacy continues to rise in the final section of the count and that Noboa was going down.

For the analyst and professor at the University of the Americas, María Cristina Bayas, what has happened «is a triumph for Correism, because the surveys gave a wide difference between Noboa and González.» He anticipated an eventual comeback of figures to leave the leftist as a winner, because they had not entered a good part of the votes of the provinces that support her.

About the president, he told the AP that «even if he wins by the minimum difference, it is a failure, because a great expectation» of an eventual triumph for broad difference had been generated.

Daniel Noboa still did not make public appearances at the election night.

Esteban Ron, dean of the Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences of the UISEK International University, considered that Noboa will be forced to make a reengineering of his campaign, with the risk that he has reached his voting stop, he told the AP. He awarded the phenomenon to the problems he faced in his government.

Ron believes that the shameful vote hidden in the nulls and whites and «the volatility» of the indigenous vote could «twist in favor of correism.»

The opponent González reaped an important vote in the provinces of the Ecuadorian coast, very beaten in recent years by criminal violence linked to drug trafficking and with links with the drug cartels of Colombia and Mexico.

A first private departure survey of the Teleamazonas channel said that Noboa could win with a 50.12% popular support compared to 42.21% of its rival González. The television stated that the margin of error of the survey was 2.98 percentage points.

To win in a single lap, a candidate must obtain 50% of the votes plus one, or harvest a 40% backup and argue to the second in 10 points.

The last president to win a single round elections was Correa in 2013.

At the end of the afternoon, with a bit of disappointment on his face, Francisco Almache 18 -year – Official results. With Noboa, he believes, the country was going wrong and «if he is going to win, it will be worse,» he lamented.

Later, the atmosphere at the headquarters of the Citizen Revolution in the north center of the capital Quito was another. «Luisa President, Luisa President,» the followers of the left -wing candidate harangued.

Cristina Ortega, 38 and merchant, argued that the first unofficial data justify that «the people are opening their eyes so that we are not prey to drug trafficking and crime.» While Martín Castro, a 43 -year -old mechanical engineer, considered that González «played him against his leader to support (Nicolás) Maduro and that his candidates did not give a firm opinion of whether they supported him or not.»

Diana Atamaint, director of the National Electoral Council, pointed out at the close of the electoral enclosures that the day passed normally and with a participation of 83.38%. 13.73 million voters were summoned to the election day.

Noboa and González arrived at the voting day as favorites in the intention to vote, but with the uncertainty of whether it would have enough support to win in a single round.

If there is ballot, this is scheduled for April 13.

Both again measured forces, as happened at the end of 2023 when the current president won a surprising triumph, because then he did not appear in the surveys as a favorite.

One of the offers in this campaign, in which the 16 candidates agreed, was to face the spiral of violence caused for four years by local criminal gangs linked to drug traffickers with links with Colombia and Mexico. Violence is the greatest concern of Ecuadorians. The Government ordered the closure of borders to protect security.

At the national level there were more than 100,000 military and police stationed around the voting centers.

Ecuador is located in the middle of Colombia and Peru, the largest cocaine producers in the world.

Noboa completes the period of his predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, who in a political maneuver while he was supervised in the assembly, dissolved the legislative and ended his government cycle in advance.

The next president will assume power in May. In Ecuador, the vote is mandatory for citizens between 18 and 64, and optional for adolescents since 16 and 17 years and adults over 65.