February 7th, local time, Ecuador’s new presidential election and national congress were held.
About 13.09 million voters in the country will elect a new president from 16 candidates.
The polling station was officially opened at 7 a.m. that day, and the voting process is expected to last until 5 p.m.
In view of the current needs of COVID-19 prevention and control, in order to effectively control the number of people in the polling station, in principle, it is recommended that voters arrive at the polling station in different periods according to the end number of their ID cards.
Voters must wear masks, disinfect their hands, and maintain a safe distance of more than 2 meters.
In addition, Ecuador’s Ministry of Health has tested about 270,000 polling station staff and volunteers for COVID-19 since the 2nd of this month to avoid taking on duty with illness.
The latest polls show that the hope alliance candidate Andrés Araus has a support rate of about 37%, Guillermo Lasso, who participated in the presidential election for the third time, ranked second with 24%, and the other 14 candidates have a scattered support rate.
Ecuador’s electoral law stipulates that candidates who have more than 50% of the votes in the first round, or get 40% of the votes, and 10% more than the next candidate, can win the general election directly, otherwise a second round of voting will be held.
