Ecuador's conservative incumbent and a leftist lawyer are leading early presidential voting results

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador is likely to choose its next president in a runoff election later this year as early results of a first-round vote Sunday showed a tight difference between conservative President Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa González.

Figures released by Ecuador’s National Electoral Council after 66% of ballots were tallied showed Noboa received more than 3.09 million votes, or 44.7%, while González earned over 3.02 million votes, or 43.8%. The 14 other candidates in the race were far behind them.

The election is shaping up to be a repeat of the 2023 race, when voters chose the young millionaire Noboa over the González, the protégée of the country’s most influential president this century.

All of Sunday's candidates promised voters to reduce the widespread crime that pushed their lives into an unnerving new normal four years ago.

The spike in violence across the South American country is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. So many voters have become crime victims that their personal and collective losses were a determining factor in deciding whether a third president in four years can turn Ecuador around or if Noboa deserves more time in office.

Ecuador’s National Electoral Council reported that more than 83% of the roughly 13.7 million eligible voters cast ballots. Voting is mandatory in Ecuador.

In the port city of Guayaquil, people lined up, initially under light rain and then under a scorching sun, outside a public university where tens of thousands were expected to cast ballots.

“For me, this president is disastrous,” said Marta Barres, 35, who went to the voting center with her three teenage children. “Can he change things in four more years? No. He hasn’t done anything.”

Barres, who must pay $25 a month to a local gang to avoid harassment or worse, said she would vote for González because she believes she can reduce crime across the board and improve the economy.

To win outright, a candidate needs 50% of the vote or at least 40% with a 10-point lead over the closest challenger. If needed, a runoff election would take place on April 13.

More than 100,000 police officers and members of the military were deployed across the country to safeguard the election, including at voting centers. At least 50 officers accompanied Noboa, his wife and their 2-year-old son to a voting center where the president cast his ballot in the small Pacific coast community of Olón.

Noboa defeated González in the October 2023 runoff of a snap election that was triggered by the decision of then-President Guillermo Lasso to dissolve the National Assembly and shorten his own mandate as a result. Noboa and González, a mentee of former President Rafael Correa, had only served short stints as lawmakers before launching their 2023 presidential campaigns.

Noboa, 37, is an heir to a fortune built on the banana trade. He opened an event organizing company when he was 18 and then joined his father’s Noboa Corp., where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas. His political career began in 2021, when he won a seat in the National Assembly and chaired its Economic Development Commission.

Under his presidency, the homicide rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 38.76 per 100,000 people last year. Still, it remained far higher than the 6.85 per 100,000 people in 2019, and some of Noboa's no-holds-barred crimefighting strategies have come under scrutiny inside and outside the country for testing the limits of laws and norms of governing.

His questioned tactics include the state of internal armed conflict he declared in January 2024 in order to mobilize the military in places where organized crime has taken hold, as well as last year's approval of a police raid on Mexico’s embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, a convicted criminal and fugitive who had been living there for months.

His head-on approach, however, is also earning him votes.

“My vote was for Noboa because of his skills and because he maintains a direct confrontation with the armed drug-trafficking groups and the corrupt,” Pablo Votruba, a retired doctor in Quito, said.

González, 47, held various government jobs during the presidency of Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 through 2017 with free-spending socially conservative policies and grew increasingly authoritarian in his last years as president. He was sentenced to prison in absentia in 2020 in a corruption scandal.

González was a lawmaker from 2021 until May 2023, when Lasso dissolved the National Assembly. She was unknown to most voters until Correa’s party picked her as its presidential candidate for the snap election.

"They are the fear, we are the hope, hope for change, for joy, for better days to come,” she told reporters after voting in her hometown of Canuto, in northwestern Ecuador.

Meanwhile, a group of soldiers, citing security reasons, prevented presidential candidate Andrea González, no relation to Luisa, from entering her assigned polling station with her protection detail. After a brief discussion, she was allowed in accompanied only by her chief of security.

Waiting for her turn to vote in Guayaquil, architecture student Keila Torres said she had not yet decided who to vote for. None, she said, will be able to lower crime across Ecuador due to deep-rooted government corruption.

“If I could, I wouldn’t be here,” said Torres, who has witnessed three robberies in public buses over the past four years and barely escaped a carjacking in December. “Things are not going to change.”

Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution Movement, speaks after polls closed for the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)

Voters mark ballots for their candidate of choice during the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

An electoral official hands a ballot to a voter during the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, running for re-election, waves after accompanying his running mate, Maria Jose Pinto, to cast her ballot during the presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)

A woman stamps her fingerprint on the voter list during presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A soldier guards a polling station during presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)

A nun votes during presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution Movement, gestures after voting in the presidential election in Canuto, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jairo Mendoza)

Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution Movement, holds up her ballot during the presidential election in Canuto, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jairo Mendoza)

A voter casts her ballot during the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Luisa Gonzalez, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution Movement, waves after voting in a presidential election in Canuto, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jairo Mendoza)

A woman votes during presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)

A soldier guards a polling station during presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)

President Daniel Noboa, who is running for reelection, holds up his ballot before voting in the presidential election in Olon, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

Voters mark ballots for their candidate of choice during the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A soldier and voters listen to the national anthem at a voting station in Quito, Ecuador, as polls open for the presidential elections on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

President Daniel Noboa, who is running for reelection, holds up his ballot before voting in the presidential election in Olon, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

President Daniel Noboa, who is running for reelection, casts his ballot in the presidential election in Olon, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

A soldier guards a polling station during presidential elections in Olon, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

A voter cast her ballot during presidential elections in Olon, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

President Daniel Noboa, who is running for reelection, holds up his ballot before voting in the presidential election in Olon, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)

A voter casts her ballot in the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A National Electoral Council employee moves boxes of election materials to be taken to a polling station in preparation for Sunday's general election, in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A soldier stands guard at a distribution center of electoral kits ahead of Sunday's general election, in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Soldiers unload election materials at a polling station in preparation for Sunday's general election, in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Soldiers unload election materials at a polling station in preparation for Sunday's general election, in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A National Electoral Council employee helps to load electoral kits at a distribution center, in preparation for Sunday's general election, in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Argentina didn’t miss Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martínez and other key players on Friday and beat Uruguay away 1-0 in convincing fashion in their South American World Cup qualifying match.

Thiago Almada scored the winner with a powerful curled shot from the edge of the box, putting the defending champions one point away from its direct spot in the tournament next year.

Argentina leads the round robin competition with 28 points after 13 matches, and could secure its place with a home draw with Brazil on Tuesday. The team of coach Lionel Scaloni already has 15 points ahead of 7th-placed Bolivia, with only five rounds to the end of the competition.

The last time the two soccer powerhouses clashed, Argentina won 1-0 at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Earlier, Ecuador defeated Venezuela 2-1 and moved into second place in South American World Cup, edging close to reaching the tournament once again.

Brazil is third with 21 points, one ahead of Uruguay and Paraguay. Colombia, with 19 points, has the sixth position.

The top six teams will secure direct berths to the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada. The seventh-place team among the 10 of the region will still have a chance to qualify through an international playoff.

Argentina had to accommodate key absences beyond Messi. Lautaro Martínez, Lisandro Martínez, and Rodrigo De Paul did not play in Montevideo. So coach Lionel Scaloni gave a place to Giuliano Simeone in the starting lineup, with Julián Álvarez and Thiago Almada up front.

Uruguay, playing in a full Centenario Stadium against its archrival, took the initiative and had the clearest chances in the first half. But Argentina managed to hold its ground and started getting the better opportunities after halftime.

Almada's goal in the 68th minute, after Argentina had wasted several other opportunities in front of goalkeeper Sergio Rochet, still didn't push Uruguay forward as Marcelo Bielsa's team finished the match with only four shots on goal.

Argentina's Nico González will miss the match against Brazil. He was sent off after a challenge against Nahitan Nández in injury time.

Brazil has selection problems of its own for Tuesday's match at the Monumental de Nunez Stadium, as starting goalkeeper Alisson, defender Gabriel Magalhães and midfielder Bruno Guimarães are all ineligible to play.

Enner Valencia, Ecuador's all-time top goal-scorer, added another two to his tally on Friday.

The striker broke through the Venezuelan defense in the 39th minute and scored with a powerful right-footed shot from an acute angle. In the first minute of the second half, he added the second after a run on the left flank ended in a classy poach over goalkeeper Rafael Romo.

Valencia could have had a third from the spot in the 69th but he missed it.

Jhonder Cádiz scored for Venezuela in injury time.

Venezuela has not won for nine straight games and remains in eighth place. The team still has a chance of qualifying for the first time in history.

Ecuador started the competition with a three-point deficit due to fielding Byron Castillo, who was actually Colombian and ineligible to play in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. Now it is close to returning to the tournament in with a steady, confident squad.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Uruguay and Argentina players argue during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)

Argentina's Thiago Almada celebrates scoring his side's first goal against Uruguay during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)

Uruguay's Maximiliano Araujo, left, and Argentina's Nahuel Molina battle for the ball during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)

Venezuela's Jhonder Cadiz, left, celebrates scoring his side's first goal against Ecuador during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 at Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Patricio Teran)

Ecuador players celebrate after their teammate Enner Valencia scores his side's opening goal against Venezuela during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 at Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Patricio Teran)

Ecuador's Enner Valencia celebrates scoring his side's opening goal against Venezuela during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 at Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Patricio Teran)