By GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador — Ecuador will choose its next president in a runoff election after conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa González garnered enough votes Sunday to beat 14 other candidates.
The contest, set for April 13, will be a repeat of the October 2023 snap election that earned Noboa a 16-month presidency.
Noboa and González are now vying for a full four-year term, promising voters to reduce the widespread criminal activity that upended their lives four years ago.
The spike in violence across the South American country is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. So many voters have become crime victims that their personal and collective losses were a determining factor in deciding whether a third president in four years could turn Ecuador around or if Noboa deserved more time in office.
Noboa, an heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, and González, the protégée of Ecuador’s most influential president this century, were the clear front-runners ahead of the election.
Figures released by Ecuador’s National Electoral Council showed that with 80% of ballots tallied, Noboa received more than 3.71 million votes, or 44.43%, while González earned over 3.69 million votes, or 44.17%. The 14 other candidates in the race were far behind them.
Voting is mandatory in Ecuador. Electoral authorities reported that more than 83% of the roughly 13.7 million eligible voters cast ballots.
