The election was brought forward to find a successor to the unpopular conservative incumbent Guillermo Lasso, to avoid his dismissal on corruption charges. In the first round of the presidential election in Ecuador, left-wing candidate Luisa Gonzalez came out on top with 33% of the vote. She will face in the second round the right-wing candidate, Daniel Noboa, who came in second with 24%. Luisa Gonzalez is the runner-up to ex-president Rafael Correa, in exile in Belgium since being sentenced by default to eight years in prison for corruption.
In Ecuador, the election was marked by the assassination last week of Fernando Villavicencio, who was one of the favorites and was killed by bullets from a commando of Colombian hitmen. His replacement, journalist Christian Zurita, is in third position with 16% of the vote.
Some 82% of the 13.4 million voters went to the polls, according to the CNE, which welcomed a “massive” mobilization and an uneventful ballot, just marked by “difficulties” quickly overcome for Internet voting since the stranger. Ecuadorians voted to elect their president, their vice-president and the 137 deputies of the unicameral Congress.
When the result was announced, Luisa Gonzalez, the only woman in the running for this election, celebrated a “great triumph”. “We are making history”, proclaimed the one who has long been given the favorite in the polls, predicting “a great second definitive victory” in the second round. A wink of fate, Rafael Correa was elected in 2007 against Alvaro Noboa, Daniel’s father. Noboa father is a wealthy businessman, who has built an empire around banana exports, but also a controversial figure, accused in particular of tax evasion.
A historic consultation on the Amazon rainforest
With a record homicide rate and massacres between rival gangs, Ecuador has been contaminated in recent years by drug trafficking from Colombia and Peru, organized by Mexican cartels. This Sunday, its inhabitants also voted by referendum on whether or not to continue oil exploitation in the Amazonian forest of Yasuni (North-East), indigenous land and unique biodiversity reserve. According to the first trends on Sunday evening, 58% of voters were in favor of suspending production.