Ecuador’s conservative incumbent and a leftist lawyer advance to presidential runoff – The Associated Press
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President Daniel Noboa and his opponent Luisa González are the clear front-runners in Sunday’s election in Ecuador. The race has shaped up to be a repeat of the 2023 election, when voters chose young, conservative millionaire Noboa over González, the leftist protégée of Rafael Correa, the country’s most influential president this century. (AP video: Daniel Tapia, Cesar Olmos)
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, running for re-election, waves after accompanying his running mate, Maria Jose Pinto, to cast her ballot during the presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)
Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution Movement, speaks after polls closed for the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)
President Daniel Noboa, who is running for re-election, leaves a polling station after accompanying his running mate Maria Jose Pinto as she casts her ballot, in Quito, Ecuador, during presidential elections, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution Movement, speaks next to her running mate, Diego Borja, after polls closed for the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)
Voters mark ballots for their candidate of choice during the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
En resumen: Revisa la cobertura de AP en español de las elecciones presidenciales en Ecuador del domingo.
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s April runoff election for president will test the lasting influence of former leftist President Rafael Correa when his protege, lawyer Luisa González, goes up against the conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa.
Neither Noboa nor González won an outright majority in Sunday’s first-round election, but they both were way ahead of the other 14 candidates and each within a percentage point of each other, according to results Monday.
The run-off will be a repeat of the 2023 snap election, prompted by the dissolution of the National Assembly, in which Noboa earned a truncated 16-month presidency after the wealthy businessman campaigned on controlling Ecuador’s crime wave of recent years.
González, this year as in 2023, is appealing to voters’ nostalgia for Correa’s 2007-2017 decade in power that predated the drug trafficking crime wave and that was marked by free-spending policies of the still-influential Correa.
Many voters on Sunday framed their choice on whether they wanted to see a return to what is known as Correismo.
Those who support the movement long for the low crime and unemployment rates of that era but gloss over Correa’s authoritarian tendencies, the huge debt he ran up and the corruption-related sentence handed down to him in absentia in 2020.
Even among those who support Noboa, many have said their vote is more a rejection of Correismo than a resounding endorsement of the president’s crimefighting and governance so far.
Many Ecuadorians were angered last year when Noboa authorized power cuts of up to 14 hours that were blamed on severe drought, and have been wary of his mobilization of the military in the fight against drug traffickers.
The tight margin between the two candidates reflects “Noboa’s inability to reach across the aisle, at least to other sectors of society wary about the return of Correismo,” said Grace Jaramillo, an Andean region expert and professor at the University of British Columbia.
But it also reflects “concern about his lackluster management of the energy crisis late in the fall” and what critics see as an abuse of power in fighting drug dealers, she said.
Figures released by Ecuador’s National Electoral Council showed that with 92.1% of the ballot counted, Noboa received 4.22 million votes, or 44.31%, while González received 4.17 million votes, or 43.83%. The 14 other candidates in the race were far behind them.
The candidates will now campaign for the April 13 runoff election, which will give the winner a full four-year term.
Voting is mandatory in Ecuador. Electoral authorities reported that more than 83% of the roughly 13.7 million eligible voters cast ballots on Sunday.
Sunday marked the fourth consecutive time that the candidate representing Correa’s movement did not win a first-round election outright. Noboa, 37, and González, 47, were the clear front-runners ahead of the election.
González held various government jobs during Correa’s presidency. Like Noboa, she was a lawmaker from 2021 until May 2023, when then-President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly and shortened his own mandate as a result.
Now, both candidates will have to mine for further support among pro- and anti-Correa voters, as well as among smaller political movements, including that of indigenous leader Leonidas Iza, who appeared on Sunday’s ballot and finis
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