In an unprecedented election, the candidate of the ruling party and the candidate of the Citizen Revolution party monopolized more than 88% of the valid votes, even though there were almost 16 candidates.

Right-wing Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and progressive Luisa González clinched first and second place in the first round of Ecuador’s presidential elections, winning a combined 88% of the valid votes. The two candidates will dispute the Presidency of the Republic on April 13.

According to data from the National Electoral Council, so far, right-wing President Daniel Noboa of the National Democratic Action (ADN) party won 44.29% of the valid votes, while Luisa González, of the Correist Citizen Revolution party, obtained 43.85%. This means that there is more or less a difference of 42,000 votes between the top two candidates out of the more than 10 million people who voted. In third place is the Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza with 5.26% of the Pachakutik party and in fourth place is the right-wing candidate Andrea González with 2.71%. The remaining twelve candidates obtained, individually, less than 1%. Between them, they add up to only 3.89%.

The last time a candidate obtained such a high first-round vote was in 2013, when then-president Rafael Correa reached 57% (thus winning the presidency in the first round). Banker and future president Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023) had won 23%, and former president Lucio Gutiérrez (2003-2005) won 7% of the valid votes. However, it had never happened before that the leading candidates obtained such a high and, at the same time, similar vote share.

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