Ecuador presidential elections go to the surface flow between the current, left -wing lawyer

• Ecuador will choose its next president in the surface flow elections in April between the Conservative incubator Daniel Nuboa and the leftist lawyer Luisa Gonzalez.
• Crime is a major issue for voters. Cocaine trafficking produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru contributed to the high rates of killing, kidnapping and extortion.
• Ecuador’s National Electoral Council said that with the calculation of 92.1 % of the cards, Nuboa received 44.31 % of Voite, while González received 43.83 %. The other 14 candidates in the race were behind them.

Ecuador will choose its next president in the surface flow elections in April between the Conservative incubator Daniel Nuboa and the leftist lawyer Luisa Gonzalez.

None to the first round elections on Sunday, but they were both on both other candidates for 14 candidates, and each one at a percentage point is to obtain 44 % of the votes, according to the results on Monday.

The elections, which were identified on April 13, will be a repetition of the Snap election in October 2023, which won the 16 -month presidency.

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Nubua and Gonzalez are now competing for a full four years, and voters promised to reduce criminal activity on a large scale that raised their lives four years ago.

The rise in violence throughout the country of South America is associated with the smuggling of cocaine produced in the neighboring Columbia and Peru. Many voters have become so victims of their crimes that their personal and group losses were a decisive factor in determining whether the third president in four years could turn Ecuador or if Nuboa deserves more time in his position.

Nuboa, a heir to a wealth based on banana trade, was Gonzalez, the head of the largest president in Ecuador in this century, was one of the clear first centers before the elections.

The figures issued by the National Electoral Council showed that with the calculation of 92.1 % of the polling cards, Nuboa received 4.22 million votes, or 44.31 %, while Gonzalez got 4.17 million votes, or 43.83 %. The other 14 candidates in the race were behind them.

The vote is mandatory in Ecuador. The electoral authorities stated that more than 83 % of about 13.7 million qualified voters appreciate voting cards.

Crime, gangs and extortion

Under the Nuboa hour, the killing rate decreased from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 38.76 per 100,000 people last year. However, it is still much higher than 6.85 per 100,000 people in 2019, and other crimes, such as kidnapping and extortion, have risen, causing people to be afraid to leave their homes.

“For me, this president is catastrophic,” said Marta Pars, 35, who went to the voting center with her three teenage children. “Can he change things in another four years? No. He did nothing.”

Barres, who must pay $ 25 a month to a local gang to avoid harassment or worse, said she supported Gonzalez because she believes that she could reduce crime in all fields and improve the economy.

Nuboa Gonzalez was defeated in the Tour of the Current Aquals in October 2023 for sudden elections that caused President Guirmo Laso’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly and shorten his mandate as a result. Nuboa and Gonzalez, a teacher of former President Rafael Correa, did not only make short skills as legislators before launching their presidential campaigns that year.

For the explicit victory on Sunday, a candidate needed 50 % of the votes or at least 40 % with 10 points progressing over the nearest competitor.

More than 100,000 police officers and army officers have been deployed throughout the country to protect the elections, including in voting centers. At least 50 Noboa officers, his two -year -old wife and son, accompanied a voting center where the president was voted in the Pacific coast community in Olon.

Test the limits of laws and rules of government

Nuboa, 37, opened an organizer company when he was eighteen years old and then joined his father’s company at Noboa Corp. , Where he held administrative positions in the shipping areas and logistical and commercial services. His political career began in 2021, when he won a seat in the National Assembly and chaired the Economic Development Committee.

As president over the past 15 months, some Mano Dura, or heavy tactics have been subjected to crime to scrutinize inside and outside the country to test the limits of laws and rules of government.

The tactics that were interrogated include the state of internal armed conflict announced in January 2024 in order to mobilize the army in the places where the organized crime was exposed, as well as the approval of a police raid last year at the Mexico Embassy in the capital, Kito, to the arrest of former Vice President Jorge Glass, A criminal and a runaway person who had lived there for months.

However, his direct approach gains votes.

“Nuboa is the only person who strives to seriously organized.” river.

“Things will not change”

Gonzalez, 47, has occupied various government jobs during the Korea presidency, which led Ecuador from 2007 to 2017 with socially conservative policies freedom of spending and grew increasingly in his recent years as president. He was sentenced to prison in the absence of in 2020 in the corruption scandal.

Gonzalez was one of the legislators from 2021 to May 2023, when Laso came to the National Assembly. It was not known to most of the voters until the Korea party chose it as a candidate in the wrong elections.

Maria Christina Payas at Kito University at Kito University said on Sunday’s “victory” for the Korean party because pre -election polls expected a broader difference between Nooboa and González.

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Esteban Ron, Dean of the College of Social and Legal Sciences at the International University of SEK in Kito, said that Nuboa would have to re -engineer his campaign in the danger that he may have already reached the roof of the vote. Ron attributed the result the problems that Nuboa faced during his administration.

Waiting for her role to vote in Guayaquil, architect Kela Torres said she had not yet decided who would vote. She said no one will be able to reduce crime via Ecuador due to deep government corruption.

“If I can, I will not be here,” said Torres, who has seen three robberies on public buses over the past four years. “Things will not change.”