Incumbent president Daniel Noboa, one of the youngest leaders in the world, has promised to continue to crack down on drug trade crime. He is considered the favorite in Sunday’s vote.
Polls have closed in Ecuador, with voters casting ballots to elect their next president.
Once regarded as one of the safest countries in South America, Ecuador is experiencing its worst crisis in half a century due to drug cartel violence and a struggling economy.
Voters can choose from sixteen candidates, but incumbent president Daniel Noboa and his leftist opponent Luisa Gonzalez are the two frontrunners.
Reportedly, Noboa is leading the vote with 45.2% while Gonzalez is trailing with 43.3% of the vote share, with just half of the ballot boxes counted.
If no candidate reaches 50% of the vote outright, or 40% being 10 points ahead of their nearest rival, the top two best performing candidates will head to a runoff on April 13.
Both frontrunners have campaigned under heavy protection by special forces and bodyguards, in the wake of the events of the last election in 2023 when a leading candidate was assassinated.
Polls closed at 5 p.m. local time (2200 UTC).
Noboa expected to win
Opinion polls in Ecuador point to a safe reelection for Noboa. The young president has campaigned to continue his hardline policies against organized crime.
“Today Ecuador has changed and wants to keep changing, it wants to consolidate its triumph. We are not a promise anymore, we are a reality in this country, which has taken a decision,” Noboa said at a closing campaign rally on Thursday in Quito.
According to surveys, Noboa could win with more than 50% of the vote or at least reach the 40% to head into the runoff, which polls show he would also likely win.
For her part, Luisa Gonzalez has also promised to tackle crime with major military and police operations, by pursuing allegedly corrupt judges and prosecutors, but also with a focus on implementing a social spending plan in the most violent areas.
“We can’t talk about controlling violence without thinking of social justice, of building an Ecuador with peace, not with war,” said Gonzalez, who is a protege of the controversial former leftist president Rafael Correa.
Drug trade violence plagues Ecuador
Ecuador has become a hub of drug trafficking in recent years when drug market patterns changed.
As US drug users turned to opiates, South American cartels shifted to fast-growing cocaine markets in Europe, Australia and Asia.
Since then, Ecuador’s numerous Pacific ports in Guayaquil and Manta have become a go-to route to ship the drugs from jungle labs in Colombia and Peru to Europe and the rest of the world.
Turf wars have raged between rival gangs; the murder rate has spiked, while kidnapping and extortion have soared to record highs.
Noboa declared a state of emergency, deploying the army across the country and gathering extraordinary executive powers to curb the violence.
But activists have accused Noboa’s government and his military approach as leading to human rights abuses.
The Ecuadorian government has stood by the policy, saying that it has reduced violent deaths by 15%, reduced prison violence, and facilitated the capture of major gang leaders.
