Ecuadorians head to polls on Sunday for a presidential runoff election

By James Blears

Voters in Ecuador will head to the polls on April 13 to decide who will lead the South American country for the next four years.

Incumbent president Daniel Noboa, the heir to banana conglomerate, and lawyer Luisa Gonzáles, respectively gained 44.1744% of the vote in February's round one. Round two is a repeat of the October 2023 election, which Naboa won in the runoff.

Once again, all's at stake, but since then, factors have changed. After taking office in November 2023, 2 months later, Noboa launched a law and order crackdown, deploying thousands of troops to stem and staunch street crime considerably aggravated by cocaine trafficking originating from production of the narcotic in neighboring Colombia and Peru.

Crime and unemployment are major issues to be tackled in Ecuador. Noboa pledges to create a million jobs during the next four years. González, who's a protege of former president Rafael Correa, vows she'll create twice as many. More than 13,000,000 people are eligible to vote, which is mandatory for those aged up to 65. For those who are older, they've seen this many times before. Turnout is expected to be high.