The early presidential elections in Ecuador are taking place today under a State of Emergency and intense wildfires, in which 13.45 million voters are called to elect the new president among four main candidates.

Quito.- These are Lucía González, from the Citizen Revolution Movement; Otto Sonnenholzner, from Let’s Act Now; Yaku Pérez, an ecologist from Democracy Movement, and Jan Topic, from the Social Christian Party.

According to the latest polls, González leads the pack but might not get all the votes needed to win in the first round, so most likely she will have to go to a runoff with economist Sonnenholzner who served as vice president in Lenín Moreno’s administration.

Nationwide, 4,390 polling stations will open early Sunday under heavy security in the face of growing criminal and political violence in Ecuador. On August 9 candidate Fernando Villavicencio, from Building Movement, was murdered in Quito, an assassination that shocked the country.

Since Villavicencio’s murder, there’s growing uncertainty and the number of undecided voters rose. According to political analysts around 60 percent of the electorate is undecided on who to vote for.

According to the authorities, over 53,000 police officers and 43,000 military servicemen will watch over the polling stations to guarantee security.

Besides electing the president and vice president and the members of Congress, Ecuadorians should vote on a referendum on oil extraction in the Yasuni National Park, north of Quito. (PL)