Ecuadorians choose their next president

***[Scroll down for 4 updates to the original post]***

Yesterday we posted on stories from the international press on today’s election for Ecuador’s’ next president. Here are several headlines from the Ecuadorian media on today’s activities (unless otherwise indicated all articles are in Spanish):

* El Expreso mentions that electoral observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) have found no major irregularities and that “voting has been normal throughout the entire country” according to the head of the OAS observers-Rafael Bielsa. Yet El Mercurio said that Bielsa has been accused by supporters of frontrunner Rafael Correa of not begin impartial and of hiding voting irregularities.

* Bielsa’s claims may be incorrect as La Hora mentioned that there have been hundreds of complaints made on voting irregularities in major cities including insufficient ballots and voting precincts. Hoy Online corroborates by telling that ballots were burned in one provincial city.

* El Telégrafo said that over 200 people were arrested last night for drunkenness and consuming alcohol in public which means that they will not be able to vote today.

* El Universo points that 90,000 Ecuadorians in Spain went to the polls; this is the first presidential election that allows foreign-based Ecuadorians to vote. However, tensions ran high in the Spanish city of Murcia when a few voters clashed with police.

Update (6:00pm): a few more headlines out of Ecuador (all are in Spanish):

• Candidate Alvaro Noboa promised today that he would break all relations with Venezuela if he wins the presidency (via El Expreso).
• President Alfredo Palacio ensured that the election results would be “respected” by the government (via La Hora).
• An electoral official in the cry of Manabí was arrested on charges that she purposefully hid 300 blank votes (via El Telégrafo).
• So far over 600 people have been arrested for breaking “dry laws” against public alcohol consumption during this weekend (via El Comercio).
• Traffic in Guayaquil has reached a standstill as citizens have gone to vote en masse today (via Hoy Online).

Update (7.45pm): CNN en Espanol reports that exit polls have Alvaro Noboa in 1st with 28.5%, Rafael Correa in 2nd with 26.5% and Leon Roldos in a distant third place. Noboa and Correa would face each other in a runoff since no candidate received a majority they would each.

However, Brazilian firm E-Vote has a statistical dead heat with Correa leading at 24.6% and Roldos in 2nd with 24.2%. Noboa isn't even in the top 3 according to E-Vote! (Link via Hoy Online).

If the CNN en Espanol data is correct, then the runoff would be a race to see who could best appeal to moderate voters since Correa and Noboa are on opposite poles of the political spectrum. Yet if the E-Vote data is correcct then the right may very well decide who would win. Perhaps Roldos may have a slight advantage since he's center-left while Correa is less moderate.

Update (8:30 pm): Okay, now I'm confused. El Universo says that E-Vote's data has Noboa and Correa in 1st and 2nd, respectively.

Update (11:45pm): Final update of the evening, folks. (All links are in Spanish).

• The official results from Ecuador’s Electoral Tribunal can be seen here and will be updated during the evening. As of the time of this update Alvaro Noboa leads with 26.78%, followed by Rafael Correa with 22.42%, León Roldos with 15.93% and Gilmar Gutierrez with 15.64%. (59% of precincts reported).
• Univision reports that Alvaro Noboa won the first round yet but will have to face Rafael Correa in a runoff. They show an interview given tonight by Noboa where he enthusiastically characterized Correa as a “friend of terrorism, friend of (Hugo) Chavez, (and a) friend of Cuba.” Correa, in the meantime, was briefly shown at a press conference calling for his supporters to be alert in pointing out “fraudulent” activities by his opposition.
• Leon Roldos expressed his disappointment with his third place finish and was upset that voters “elected the candidates with the biggest checkbooks.”
• Another candidate upset with her electoral finish was 5^th place candidate Cynthia Viteri who quickly admitted defeat but not without vowing to be “alert, observant, and vigilant” for all Ecuadorians.
• Gilmar Gutierrez was very pleased at being in the top 4 and alluded to Ecuador’s political instability by calling his campaign a “victory for democracy against coup supporters”.

That’s all for tonight. Tune in on Monday when we will look at the reactions to the election by the English-language, international press.

Links- El Universo, El Telégrafo, Hoy Online, La Hora, El Mercurio, El Expreso (all from Ecuador)

Image- El Comercio (Alvaro Noboa on the left and Rafael Correa on the right).

Tags- Ecuador, election