No winner in the first round, early election in Ecuador: all candidates wear bulletproof vests to vote for candidates | vote percentage | bulletproof vests
After a series of violent incidents in recent days, Ecuador held a presidential election on August 20th, and the situation remained stable on the day of the election. According to preliminary statistics, none of the candidates have received enough support to win the election. Luisa Gonzalez, a candidate from the Ecuadorian Civil Revolutionary Party, will engage in a second round of showdown with Daniel Novoa, a candidate from the National Democratic Action campaign.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the Constitution of Ecuador stipulates that in the presidential election, candidates who receive more than half of the votes in the first round or more than 40% of the votes and are more than 10 percentage points ahead of the second place will be directly elected as president; If no candidate meets the above conditions, the candidate with the top two votes will enter the second round of voting, and the candidate with the most votes will be elected.
According to the Financial Times on August 21, after counting nearly 85% of the votes, Ecuadorian left-wing party Civic Revolutionary Party candidate Gonzalez ranked first with 33% of the vote, and centrist candidate Novoa from the campaign alliance "National Democratic Action" ranked second with 24% of the vote. Due to the fact that both sides did not receive enough support to win the election, no one won the first round of the election. The two are expected to face off in the second round on October 15th this year.
According to CNN, Gonzalez is considered a "disciple" of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison for bribery in 2020. Gonzalez has promised to increase investment in public services and hopes to address the current security crisis in Ecuador by addressing the root causes of violence such as poverty.
Novoya comes from a family of businessmen, whose father is a banana merchant who has run for the presidency of Ecuador multiple times. During the election process, Novoya promised to create more job opportunities for young people, attract more foreign investment, and proposed several anti-corruption measures.
Before the general election in Ecuador, a series of violent incidents erupted in the country, attracting widespread attention from the international community. On August 9th, Fernando Villavesensio, who is considered a long-term opponent of former President Correa and is known for fighting corruption and drug trafficking, was shot and killed. Ecuador immediately entered a state of emergency. On the 14th, Pedro Brionez, leader of the Ecuadorian Civil Revolutionary Party, also died from being shot. On the 17th, the convoy of Novoya, who ranked second in the first round of elections, was interrupted due to gunshots heard while moving, but the Ecuadorian government stated that Novoya himself was not the target of the attack.
On the day of the August 20th election, all candidates appeared wearing bulletproof vests, and security forces provided protection outside each polling station. There were no violent incidents during the election process. The Ecuadorian Election Commission stated that the country's electoral system has been attacked by hackers from multiple countries, but the votes have not been affected.
This is the first time Ecuador has held a general election under a state of emergency. On the day of the election, the Eritrean government deployed over 100000 armed forces personnel and police to carry out security work. In addition, to ensure open and transparent elections, over 2300 observers jointly supervise the election process.
