Shaken by violence, Ecuador expects tight election; Get to know candidates

This year’s election is starred by the same politicians of the last presidential race in 2023. Amid an impeachment process, the president of the time, Guilleme Lasso, dissolved the National Assembly and called on early elections in the country – which ended with candidate Fernando Villavicencio killed with three shots.

From this, they took the leadership Luisa Gonzalez, and Daniel Noboa, from Centro-Right, who took the presidency in the second round. ” These elections will be a continuation of the second round elections of a year and a half. This indicates that Ecuador is still stopped at the same level as the political dispute and now it will be another round of it, ” understands Thiago Rodrigues, professor at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF).

In addition to Noboa and González, 14 other candidates are in the election. These, however, have no chance of moving forward to a second round, according to research.

Noboa, who seeks reelection, leads with a 36.1% voting intention against 33% of Luísa González. The data are from the Communicaliza survey, conducted in late January, with interviews with 5,200 people in 24 provinces in the country. The third place, still uncompetitive with 2%, is from the activist and indigenous leader Leonidas Iza.

According to analysts, with the country in crisis, the Ecuadorian population tends to choose the candidate who has the hardest speech to combat violence. The violence of organized crime has transformed Ecuador in recent years, which was considered an island of peace in relation to Colombia and Peru, in one of the world’s largest cocaine producers.

The population is very exhausted from this issue of drug trafficking violence. Therefore, it is inclined to a candidate who has a harder, heavier crime -fighting speech. There is the idea that you need to have a strong hand from the state to end this problem because they want to live again normally. Flavia Loss, coordinator of the International Relations course at FESPSP