The first round of the Ecuadorian presidential elections left narrow results between the two main candidates:The current president, Daniel Noboa, won 44.3% of the votes, while the correist, Luisa González, won 43.8%. Most of the polls predicted that the same trend would continue in the second round of voting on Sunday, but Noboa has scored more than ten points for González: While the leader of Acción Democrática Nacional won 55.8% of the votes, the candidate of the Citizen Revolution Movement obtained 44.1%, according to the Electoral Commission of Ecuador CNE.

The opposition complains about the published results: In an appearance at the headquarters of the Movimiento Revolución Ciudadana in the capital of Quito, González pointed out that Sunday’s elections are the “biggest fraud” in the history of Ecuador and that the CNE will be asked to recount the votes.

Former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) has also condemned the results in his social networks, complaining that it is "impossible" for the votes obtained by Noboa to have such growth from the first round to the second: "I don't want to believe that there are people who prefer lies to truth and/or who prefer violence to peace and unity." Since 2017, Correa has been in exile in Belgium, where he has been arrested in Ecuador for several corruption cases between 2012 and 2016.

An unstable mandate

Noboa came to the presidency of Ecuador in November 2023, after the resignation of his previous president, Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023). Since then, the head of the National Democratic Action has had a mandate full of difficulties, since the crime and homicides of the day have increased significantly in recent years: according to government data, in 2019 there were fewer than seven homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 46 in 2023. In addition, unemployment and poverty have increased, among other things.