Instead of a victory speech at one of the political headquarters in the capital, Quito, Ecuadorians heard the president of the electoral commission, Diana Atamaint, say:
– We will move towards a second round of elections on October 15.
Televised the debate
The left-leaning lawyer Luisa González received 33 percent of the vote and is the strongest going into the second round.
However, she does not have the most wind at her back. In October, she will face the big surprise of the election, the right-wing candidate Daniel Noboa. He received 24 percent of the vote, a result well ahead of several of the early favorites.
35-year-old Noboa is believed to have won many votes on a strong showing in the only televised debate, where he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
The election was held in the shadow of the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito on 9 August. He ran an unprecedented campaign against corruption and organized crime, and in the election almost all the candidates have promised to fight the drug cartels.
This applies not least to Noboa, who is trying to do what his father failed to do in five elections – to become the country’s president.
Voted to stop oil drilling
In connection with the presidential election, however, the majority voted to stop the oil drilling that has been going on since 2016 in the Amazon.
The reserve where the disputed oil find is home to five groups of indigenous people, three of which live in isolation from the outside world.
The stoppage affects one-eighth of the country’s oil production and will cost Ecuador the equivalent of SEK 176 billion over the next 20 years.