Correísta Luisa González and businessman Daniel Noboa will play for the presidency of Ecuador

Around 9:30 p.m., the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint, announced that there will be a second round of elections. For security reasons, the companies that usually carry out polls at the exit exit stopped working, which delayed knowing the results, but once the official count data flowed, they were disseminated on various digital platforms. The other candidates acknowledged their defeat, but none have ruled on who they will support in the second round.

Ecuadorians residing abroad had problems exercising their telematic vote; throughout the day there were complaints from various parts of the world. At the end of the voting, the CNE president acknowledged the failures and revealed that there was a cyber attack on the system, but said that it did not alter the results of the voting of Ecuadorians abroad, although a new election has not been ruled out.

Yesterday was a day without setbacks realizing that the shielding with 100,000 members of the public force set up by the authorities to guarantee the security of citizens gave results, in a country tormented by the violence of organized crime, which during the campaign it claimed the lives of three candidates, including one who was running for the Presidency of the Republic. Until the closing of this edition, no incident had been reported, and the more than 2,000 electoral observers from various countries and international organizations highlighted the conduct of the voters. After noon, the president of the CNE, on a national channel, pointed out that everything was developing in peace, and that the percentage of voters up to that time was similar to the percentage of previous elections.

The day was marked by uncertainty, not only because of the results of the pronouncement of the people at the polls, but also because of the way in which they will be reported, after Cedatos, who has extensive experience in polling at the polls, announced the day before he gave up doing the investigation, despite having registered with the CNE, along with two other companies that will have the figures. He cited security reasons, noting that “given the evident state of ‘serious commotion’ within the country, he will not work in the 720 electoral precincts, as well as in 146 urban and rural localities that he had planned.

This medium published yesterday the electoral trends that showed that Luisa González, from the Revolución Ciudadana movement (RC5); Daniel Noboa, from the ADN movement (right), and Jan Topic, from the right-wing Christian Social Party (PSC), would be the most likely to be in the second round, without ruling out Christian Zurita, from the Construye movement (right), which was growing .

The eight presidential candidates decided to vote very early in the morning; They did it in their places of origin or where they currently reside. Luisa González voted in the province of Manabí, she was accompanied by her candidate for the Vice Presidency, Andrés Araúz; Daniel Noboa did it in the coastal province of Santa Elena, he arrived with his wife and his mother who has also participated in politics; In Guayaquil, Jan Topic voted accompanied by his wife, as did Otto Sonnenholzner, who is sponsored by an alliance of center-right parties. In Quito, Christian Zurita, from the Construye movement (right) and Javier Hervas, from RETO (centre-right), did so, while Yaku Pérez from an alliance of left-wing parties did so in Cuenca and Bolívar Armijos, from the Amigo movement, in Esmeraldas.

In yesterday’s elections, Ecuadorians also elected a new National Assembly of 137 legislators and voted for a referendum to decide whether or not to continue oil exploitation in Yasuní, a Biosphere heritage site and one of the most megadiverse places in the world.