MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Elections in Ecuador: González and Noboa advance to runoff

González urged her followers to prevent Noboa from becoming “Lasso 2.0”

Luisa González of former President Rafel Correa's Revolucion Ciudadana (RC) was the most-voted candidate in Sunday's elections in Ecuador marred by last week's murder of Movimiento Construye's (MC) hopeful Fernando Villavicencio.

However, González failed to secure a decisive majority and will therefore face Acción Democrática Nacional's (ADN) Daniel Noboa, son of prominent banana businessman and former presidential candidate Alvaro Noboa, at the Oct. 15 runoff.

With 83% of the votes counted, González led Noboa by 33.11% to 23.96% in the race to define who will complete President Guillermo Lasso's term ending in May 2025.

MC's Christian Zurita, who replaced Villavicencio on the ticket, came in third with 16.47% of the votes, followed by Jan Topic of Juntos Triunfaremos with 14.6%, former vice-president Otto Sonnenholzner (7.06%), environmentalist Yaku Pérez (3.76%), businessman Xavier Hervas (0.47%) and independent lawyer Bolívar Armijos (0.35%). Zurita, along with several other candidates, conceded defeat on Sunday evening.

Over 13.4 million Ecuadorians were registered to vote in Sunday's presidential and legislative elections during which also two environmental plebiscites took place.

These snap elections stemmed from President Lasso's applying the so-called “cross-death” mechanism on the brink of his impeachment. Lasso thus Lasso dissolved Parliament and called for extraordinary early elections so that the new authorities complete his term (2021-2025).

“We are celebrating because we are making history, even though so many of us have been ignored, today we begin moving toward a different history,” González said in Quito. The former assemblywoman asked her followers to rise to the occasion and “vote well, with conscience, so that there is not a Lasso 2.0.”

González might become the first woman to reach the presidency through the vote. Ecuador has only had one woman at the head of the Carondelet Palace: Rosalía Arteaga, in 1997, but it was temporary after the dismissal of Abdalá Bucaram.

“The Ecuadorean people have won,” the 35-year-old Noboa told reporters in Guayaquil. “The youth candidate, of the people who are seeking hope, who want to change Ecuador, has triumphed.”

A webpage set up for some Ecuadoreans living abroad to cast their ballots suffered cyberattacks, the head of the national electoral council said, but the integrity of the vote was not affected by the issue. The cyberattacks on the webpage for voters abroad were launched from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia, and China, said National Electoral Council (CNE) Chairwoman Diana Atamaint. “The online platform suffered cyberattacks that affected the fluidity of access to voting.

We clarify and emphasize that the recorded votes have not been violated,” Atamaint said. She also announced turnout had reached 82.26% Sunday.

Also on Sunday, two environmental referendums could block mining in a forest near Quito and the development of an oil block in the Amazon. The vote on the Yasuni oil block showed support for a ban on development leading with 58% support, with about 24% of ballot boxes counted. A ban on mining in the Choco Andino forest was also winning with 67% support.

Article 161 of Ecuador's Code of Democracy establishes that a candidate can win in a single round when he/she obtains an absolute majority of valid votes cast or if he/she obtains at least 40% of the votes and a difference of more than ten points with respect to the second.

Amid Ecuador's wave of violence, 945 people were arrested Sunday by law enforcement in a move to guarantee a smooth election day. A total of 53,707 police officers were deployed for the various operations nationwide. “Peace and security have been maintained,” Police Chief Fausto Salinas said.

“In the total number of detainees of this election day, since the operation has been in force, there are 945 detainees for some causes such as common crimes and arrest warrants,” he added.