People voting at a polling station in Ecuador. Photo: National Electoral Council of Ecuador.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador announced that if the trends in the scrutiny of the votes cast in the presidential elections held this Sunday are maintained, there will be a runoff on April 13.
In a press conference late on Sunday night, the president of the CNE, Diana Atamaint, said that so far more than 66% of the electoral records have been processed and that this task will continue “until the last vote is counted.”
#CadenaNacional 📻 📷 I Desde el Centro de Mando Electoral, como @cnegobec realizamos el Cuarto Reporte sobre los acontecimientos de las #Elecciones2025Ec 📷⤵️ https://t.co/KWkj5PcnWZ
— Diana Atamaint (@DianaAtamaint) February 10, 2025
At midnight of Monday, February 10, with 88.6% of the votes counted, incumbent Daniel Noboa and the candidate of the opposition Citizen Revolution (RC), Luisa González, are at a technical tie, with Noboa receiving 44.36% of the valid votes while González got 43.9%.
The presidential and parliamentary elections in Ecuador were held on Sunday, February 9, with 4,339 polling stations opened for voting throughout the country.
More than 13.7 million Ecuadorians were registered to vote, of whom 456,485 were registered to vote abroad. They voted for the president and the vice president for the 2025-2029 term from among 16 presidential tickets, as well as the members of the National Assembly (151 seats) and the five representatives that Ecuador has in the Andean Parliament, all for the same term. .
The current president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, and the candidate of the leftist Citizen Revolution, Luisa González , are the candidates with the highest voting intention, according to polls and the first projections at the exit polls.
According to the preliminary report issued by the CNE at 5:00 p.m. local time, 83.38% of the registered voters voted in the polls. CNE President Diana Atamaint highlighted the “historic” turnout.
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A total of 133,588 witnesses from political parties as well as 1,682 national and international observers were accredited for the elections.
Security on election day was provided by 57,291 police officers and 48,825 soldiers. Security measures were reinforced in the provinces of Guayas, Santa Elena, El Oro, Los Ríos, Esmeraldas, and Manabí, where the most violent deaths occurred in 2024.
However, the election day has passed without significant incidents, according to government and electoral authorities. Around 700 summonses were delivered by the National Police to people who violated the Prohibition Law during the electoral period.
If a second round is necessary, as predicted by the CNE, it will take place April 13. To be elected president, a candidate must obtain 50% plus one of the valid votes, or 40% plus a difference of 10 percentage points over the second-placed candidate. As the vote count now stands, none of the candidates would be able to achieve this figure.
These elections took place in the midst of a multidimensional crisis that is seriously affecting the economy, electricity generation, citizen security, employment and income.
(Telesur) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC
