Results of the 2023-24 Elections

Today -- August 20, 2023 -- is an election day in Ecuador.


Following a violent campaign season that was triggered

by a presidente seeking to avoid being impeached,

the electorate of Ecuador will choose a new

National Assembly months after the old one was dissolved

and is choosing a new president from among eight candidates.


If Luisa Gonzáles, the polling front-runner whose party

is aligned with ex-president Rafael Correa, obtains

40 percent of the votes for president, she could become

president-elect. If no candidate reaches 40 percent,

there will be a two-candidate runoff election for president

in two months.


The candidates elected in this snap election will serve until

early 2025 when a regularly-scheduled election for

president and assembly seats will be held.


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Aug 20 - Polls closed in Ecuador's presidential and legislative election on Sunday. More than 82% of those who are required to vote did so. Voting is mandatory for those between 18 and 65.


An early exit poll after voting ended at 5 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) showed:


. Luisa Gonzalez, a protege of leftist former President Rafael Correa, leading with 33% + of the vote.


. Former lawmaker Daniel Noboa notched a surprise second-place finish with 20.5% + of the vote, according to the poll.


A webpage set up for some Ecuadoreans living abroad to cast their ballots suffered cyber attacks*, the head of the National Electoral Council said, but the integrity of the vote was not affected by the issue.


*Cyber attacks launched from: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia and China


Also on Sunday's ballot were two environmental referendums - both expected to pass - that could block mining in a forest near Quito and development of an oil block in the Amazon.


Source: Reuters

Live Election Results:


https://www.primicias.ec/noticias/elecc … a-ecuador/


Source: Primicias (dot EC)

As of 8 p.m., it remains unclear whether there will

be a runoff election in October for the presidency.

If the Reuters numbers hold, as posted above by

Rkg, Luisa Gonzáles' lead is not sufficient to avoid

a runoff.


A candidate is required to either eclipse 50 percent

of the vote or reach 40 percent with a 10-percent

margin .. in order to win outright tonight.


Candidate Jan Topic's resumé as a former solider

and sniper in the French Foreign Legion has

apparently boosted his standing among Ecuador

voters since the assassination of a presidential

candidate a week and a half ago.


The second-place candidate as of 8 p.m. was

Daniel Noboa, a businessman in the banana

industry who represented the coastal province

of Santa Elena in the National Assembly

during 2021 to 2023.


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As of 10 p.m., Luisa Gonzáles is maintaining

a nine-point lead and falling about seven points

short of the 40 percent needed for a

snap victory tonight.  Two-thirds of all votes

have been tabulated.


Source... primicias.com

Flash!

Ecuador presidential election

headed to October runoff.


Late Sunday night, The New York Times

ran a Breaking News headline...


Establishment Leftist and Newcomer Businessman

Appear Headed to October Runoff


  --


With 85.5 percent of the presidential-race votes counted,

the "establishment leftist," Luisa Gonzáles, is leading

banana-industry businessman Daniel Noboa by 8 to 9 points.

She is not capturing enough votes to avoid a runoff

between these two leading candidates on October 15.


Christian Zurita, a candidate who replaced the slain candidate

Fernando Villavicencio, is running a distant third-place effort.


Gonzáles is aligned with the party of the fugitive

ex-president Rafael Correa and is considered a

Correa protegé. She is 46. She held various posts in

the Correa Administration, especially at the Ministry

of Tourism. She was raised in Manabí province and

represented the province in the National Assembly

from 2021-23.


Noboa is 35 and represented Santa Elena, a

coastal province, for two years in the National Assembly.

His father, banana tycoon Álvaro Noboa, was a

presidential candidate five times between 1998 and 2013,

always falling short at the end. In his more recent races,

the senior Noboa, now 72, lost in races eventually won

by Correa.


The current candidate Noboa was considered a long shot

going into the final days of the campaign.



Sources... The New York Times, Primicias, Reuters,

Wikipedia (the Noboas), The Washington Post

The seats of the National Assembly, Ecuador's Congress,

were also on the ballot on Sunday. Outgoing president

Sr. Lasso temporarily dissolved the Assembly earlier this year.


Listing the results of the Assembly voting is

likely beyond the scope of this site, although

some results may be posted later if newsworthy.

💜🌺🇪🇨 Ecuador Elections: 08/20/2023

✅ Ecuadorians voted to end oil production and exploration in the Yasuní National Park. Considered by many to be the election's most important issue, the “yes” vote stood at 58% with 80% of the votes counted.

✅ On a local mining referendum, Quiteños voted overwhelmingly to ban mining in the Chocó Andino reserve.

🇪🇨 González of Citizens Revolution led the field of eight candidates with 33.28% of the votes

🇪🇨Noboa, National Democratic Action, had 23.7%.

🇪🇨 Christian Zurita, replacement candidate for Villavicencio, was the other surprise of election night, finishing third at 16.3%.

----

Elecciones Ecuador: 20/08/2023

✅ Los ecuatorianos votaron para poner fin a la producción y exploración de petróleo en el Parque Nacional Yasuní. Considerado por muchos como el tema más importante de las elecciones, el voto por el “sí” se situó en el 58 % con el 80 % de los votos contados.

✅ En un referéndum minero local, los quiteños votaron abrumadoramente a favor de prohibir la minería en la reserva Chocó Andino.

🇪🇨 González de Revolución Ciudadana lideró el campo de ocho candidatos con el 33,28% de los votos

🇪🇨 Noboa, de Acción Democrática Nacional, obtuvo el 23,7%.

🇪🇨 Christian Zurita, candidato suplente de Villavicencio, fue la otra sorpresa de la noche electoral, quedando tercero con 16,3%.


Source: Cuenca High Life

https://cuencahighlife.com/in-a-major-e … onal-park/

💜🌺🇪🇨 Ecuador Elections: 08/20/2023
✅ Ecuadorians voted to end oil production

and exploration in the Yasuní National Park.

Considered by many to be the election's

most important issue, the “yes” vote stood at 58%

with 80% of the votes counted....
-@rkg695

.

.

.

Oil still in production at national park.


El Presidente has decided to ignore the people's

decision to shut down Yasuní oil production and

exploration during the final months of his term.


Sr. Lasso is allowing production to coninue

until November, after which the new administration

presumably will disable oil-production equipment

and shut down the Yasuní operations.


The Ecuadorian incumbent said he disagrees

that the issue should have been put to a

national vote, which it was.



Source... www.cuencahighlife.com

Government backtracks on its earlier position of not supporting the “yes” vote to end oil production in Yasuní National Park. El Presidente issued a statement that “the government will abide by this decision but only after the results of the popular consultation are made official by the National Electoral Council.” (still not reading the room until the very end)


...the Yasunidos Collective called the government's position an “outrageous affront to democratic process” and was considering protests if the election results were not respected. “Because of government corruption, we have waited 10 years to address the Yasuní question and now the government says it will ignore the will of the people,” a Collective spokesman said. “We will not accept this insanity.”


Source: Cuenca HighLife

Assembly elections invalidated due to overseas shenanigans.


Due to its finding that hackers in China, Russia

and Pakistan impacted last Sunday's election results,

Ecuador's national electoral council (CNE) is

canceling out the final results of the more than 100

assembly races. A partial election will be held so that

the votes from Ecuadorians living overseas

can be properly counted.


The overseas re-vote will not affect the

presidential runoff or the referenda, only the assembly

races.


The CNE director says his agency confirmed

786 cyberhacked votes .. and he estimates that

up to 70,000 overseas votes may not have been counted.


Source... Cuenca HighLife

Delays in seating new presidente and assembly.


The overseas re-vote will be done on October 15,

in person, the same day as the presidential runoff.


This will push the seating of the new National Assembly

and the inauguration of the new president into

December or beyond.


A complicating factor is potential court challenges.


Source... www.cuencahighlife.com

Ecuador elects Daniel Noboa its president

for a year and a half.

Noboa has been declared the winner of Sunday's

run-off for president in the 2023 snap election.

At age 35, he will be the youngest president in

the country's history.


He is a former banana-industry businessman

and the son of banana baron Álvaro Noboa, who

ran unsuccessfully many times for the presidency.

--

A factor in the 2023 election of Noboa was the assassination

of a presidential candidate one and a half weeks

before the first round of the presidential election in

August.  After the shocking attack, Noboa shot up

in the polls and surprisingly qualified for yesterday's

second round.

--

The president-elect defeated Luisa Gonzáles, who was

the candidate of the party endorsed by her mentor --

controversial, convicted, fugitive ex-president Rafael Correa.

The late tally showed Noboa with about a five percent margin

over his opponent.

  --

Ecuador will hold another election for president

and National Assembly in early 2025.

Hasta la vista, Baby!


The truncated presidency of Guillermo Lasso ended

as scheduled late this week as Daniel Naboa ascended

to Ecuador's highest office.


The failed presidency of Sr. Lasso has left Ecuador

in worse shape than when he took office .. and arguably

a less attractive destination for prospecttive Expats.


An analysis just e-published at the Cuenca HighLife website

says that during Lasso's 913-day term, "Ecuador gradually collapsed

politically, socially and economically.  The state of affairs

has been so extreme and  rapid that for the first time in history

the president had to resort to the safety mechanism permitted

by the Ecuadorian Constitution, the so-called muerte cruzada

(or cross death) in order to dissolve the country's

National Assembly and prematurely hand over executive power.

The new president, Daniel Naboa ... is believed to have

reached a governability pact, something Lasso was unable to do."


The just-published analysis of the Lasso administration

details some of Ecuador's major recent failures, including

the prison massacres that have left hundreds dead .. inadequate

health care in the public hospitals .. and tens of thousands of

young people who have dropped out of school and become part

of the Coastal culture of criminal gangs that have left

crime and devastation in what had once been a peaceful region

of the country.


Source... El País, as reported in English at www.cuencahighlife.com

The Naboa inaugural.


In his inaugural address, Presidente Naboa acknowledged

that "Ecuador has gone through diffiicult times in recent years

with huge economic and security challenges, as well as a

political assassination.  It is now time to confront those

challenges."


To fight violence, the new president said, "we must fight

unemployment.  The country needs jobs and to create them

I will send urgent reforms to the Assembly."


Source... El País

Results of the Refendum Voting, April 2024.


Ecuadorians approved Presidente Noboa's crime-fighting

referendum proposals in Sunday's voting.


However, Ecuadorians voted down some non-crime-related

referendum items.


The results are detailed at www.cuencahighlife.com in an article

dated April 21 citing the anti-crime approvals

and the arbitration and labor contracts down-voting.