By Alexandra Valencia
QUITO (Reuters) – An April presidential run-off in Ecuador will pit incumbent Daniel Noboa against leftist Luisa Gonzalez, in an unexpectedly tight contest featuring the same two candidates as a 2023 snap election.
Several polls had predicted Noboa, the 37-year-old heir to a business fortune, to win, even in a first round, but he was less than a point ahead of Gonzalez on Sunday, which could give the role of kingmakers to the runners-up in third and fourth place.
With more than 80% of ballot boxes counted, Noboa had a share of 44.5% to Gonzalez’s 44%. He did not speak to supporters on Sunday evening.
Noboa has campaigned on a 15% cut in violent deaths, a reduction in prison violence and the capture of major gang leaders during 15 months in office, and vowed to keep deploying the military on the streets and in prisons to fight insecurity.
But leftist Gonzalez, 47, along with Noboa’s 14 other first-round rivals, called for more efforts to fight the drug trade-related crime that has rocked Ecuador in recent years.
Gonzalez, a protege of former President Rafael Correa, has said she would fight crime with major military and police operations, pursue corrupt judges and prosecutors, and roll out a social spending plan in the most violent areas.
Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza, who led protests that nearly unseated Noboa’s predecessor, was tallying 4.8% of the votes, while Andrea Gonzalez, once the vice presidential candidate for an assassinated anti-corruption crusader, won 2.7%.
Iza, congratulated by Luisa Gonzalez in remarks on Sunday night, is seen as unlikely to back Noboa, whom he has accused of improvising his policies and of wanting to privatize state assets.
But he has also heavily criticized Correa.
Also on Sunday night, Iza said his movement would decide collectively who to support in the run-off.
Andrea Gonzalez, who is no relation to her competitor, was running with Fernando Villavicencio in 2023 when he was shot while leaving a campaign rally.
Villavicencio was vocally opposed to Correa, who, like several major figures in his decade-long government, has been convicted of graft, but has always denied wrongdoing.
Gonzalez ran this time for the movement of former President Lucio Gutierrez, who has said he would support Noboa in a second round.
Luisa Gonzalez seemed to be extending an olive branch to potential allies on Sunday night.
“We will keep seeking unity,” Gonzalez added. “We are always looking to move Ecuadorean families forward. If we must make a change in strategy we will do it.”
For days, Correa and Gonzalez have been decrying what they called plans for election fraud, with Gonzalez singling out the head of the national electoral council, saying she had allowed Noboa to ignore campaign rules.
Noboa has been embroiled in a long-running spat with his vice president, most recently over whether he could take campaign leave.
This week the constitutional court ruled invalid two decrees Noboa used to take the leave, a result likely to complicate his ability to name an interim vice president so he can campaign in the run-off.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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