Leftist surge pushes Ecuador presidential race toward run-off in April
Ecuador’s conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa led leftist Luisa González by less than 1 per cent in close race
Incumbent President Daniel Noboa clutched onto a razor-thin lead in violence-hit Ecuador’s election on Sunday, after a stronger-than-expected challenge from a leftist rival who looked set to force a second-round run-off.
With about 90 per cent of the ballots counted, Noboa had garnered 44.4 per cent of the vote and rival Luisa González was on 43.9 per cent, official results showed.
Breaking his silence on the result, which came despite pre-election polls giving him a strong lead, Noboa said in a statement: “We won the first round over all the parties of Old Ecuador” – a reference to Gonzalez’s mentor, long-serving ex-socialist president Rafael Correa.
González, a 47-year-old single mother of two, told elated supporters in Quito that they had achieved a “great victory” by forcing what she called a “statistical tie”.
“We have won,” she claimed.
The telegenic lawyer-turned-lawmaker had trailed heavily in pre-election surveys. Some exit polls had even predicted that Noboa would garner the 50 per cent of votes needed to avoid a head-to-head contest in April.