Virtual Tie in the Presidential Election in Ecuador
Noboa and Gonzalez to face off in the April 13th runoff
HAVANA TIMES – Right-wing President Daniel Noboa and his left-wing rival Luisa Gonzalez will compete for the presidency of Ecuador on April 13, in a runoff after neither of them reached the absolute majority in the first round on February 9, which resulted in a technical tie between them.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) reported at noon on Monday, February 10, that with 92.53% of the 10.5 million votes counted, Noboa had 44.27% and González was trailing by less than half a point, with 43.87% of the votes.
The result shattered the predictions of the major polls, which had given a wider margin to the president and even suggested he would win in the first round.
Both candidates had previously contested the presidency in October 2023, when Ecuadorians went to the polls to complete the term of conservative president Guillermo Lasso, who resigned 15 months before the end of his mandate to avoid impeachment by parliament.
In both this and the previous opportunity, Noboa and González competed as heirs. Noboa, as the son of Alvaro Noboa, the wealthiest man in the country who ran for president five times without success, and Gonzalez as the candidate of the supporters of former left-wing president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), who is in exile in Belgium.
Noboa, 37, with the image of a “millennial,” bet on showing his push toward modernity, his military offensive against crime—which has besieged Ecuadorians throughout this decade—and a style of governance characterized by the implementation of executive orders, even at the edges of legality.
This style initially earned him popularity, but Ecuador has since again suffered from the challenge of criminal organizations, the persistence of poverty and unemployment, an electricity crisis with prolonged blackouts across much of the country, and the clash between his style and the demands of social organizations.
Gonzalez, a 47-year-old lawyer, campaigned by highlighting the shortcomings of Noboa’s administration, offering security and better services similar to those during Correa’s governments, but without the confrontational image or rhetoric of the former president.
The polarization and the technical tie between Noboa and González signal a neck-and-neck race to win over the voter segment that will decide in the April runoff.
The first focus turns to two minority candidates: Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza, who garnered 5.26% of the votes, and environmentalist Andrea González, with 2.71%.
Both, in their first statements after the results were announced, refrained from endorsing any of the two candidates heading to the second round. Iza’s supporters align with left-wing proposals, and Andrea González has openly expressed opposition to socialist-leaning proposals.
The election featured 16 presidential and vice-presidential tickets, with the distinction that 14 of the vice-presidential candidates were women. Most of the competitors garnered minimal percentages.
A new National Assembly was also elected, where neither of the two main forces will have a majority, as Noboa’s followers obtained 43.5% of the votes, and Gonzalez’s followers received 41.1%, according to results available by Monday.
Noboa used this data to emphasize, in a statement via his social media, that “we won the first round against all the old Ecuadorian parties, and we took the most important step of all: consolidating a different Assembly, becoming the leading force.”
Gonzalez highlighted that her vote count was the highest obtained in a first round by the Correa movement in two decades and congratulated Iza for his vote count—half a million votes, which could tilt the balance in April—seeking to secure all possible left-wing votes in her favor.