Polls have closed and votes are now being counted in Ecuador’s general election, where 16 candidates are vying for the presidency, including incumbent Daniel Noboa and his main political rival Luisa González.
According to Ecuador’s Constitution, a candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to win the first round outright, or 40% with a margin of at least 10 percentage points over the next closest candidate.
If these conditions are not met, the two candidates with the most votes will face each other in a second round, which is provisionally scheduled for April 13.
Sunday’s vote will decide if the country will stick with Noboa’s tough crackdown on crime or seek an alternative voice in González.
Noboa, who won the 2023 snap election to finish the term of his predecessor Guillermo Lasso, has presided over a series of crises in his term.
He has declared numerous states of emergency, deployed military units to tackle gang activity in the country’s streets, and began construction on a new maximum-security prison after an infamous criminal leader escaped from custody last year.
González, who was the runner-up in the 2023 race, is a close confidante of former leftist President Rafael Correa, a dominant figure in Ecuador’s politics.
Running on a campaign to “Revive Ecuador,” González has pledged to tackle the drug trade just as vigorously as Noboa.
The main challenges the next government will face when it takes office in May are security, the economy, a nationwide energy crisis and international relations.