GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador — Ecuador is holding a particular election Sunday to select a brand new president, with police and troopers on guard towards unprecedented violence, together with the assassination of a candidate this month.

Front-runners embody an ally of exiled former President Rafael Correa and a millionaire with a safety background promising to be powerful on crime.

Authorities have deployed greater than 100,000 police and troopers to guard the vote towards extra violence. Voting in Ecuador is obligatory for many voters, however turnout may very well be affected due to individuals’s fears of leaving their properties.

The nation’s prime electoral authority, Diana Atamint, on Sunday urged voters to unite towards violence.

Atamint, president of the National Electoral Council, marked the beginning of the election telling Ecuadorians that voting “should be a strong democratic message of unity and hope to face the violence that threatens our country, even though pain overwhelms us.”

Candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated Aug. 9 as he left a marketing campaign rally in Quito, the capital of the as soon as calm South American nation. The killing heightened individuals’s fears of spending time exterior dwelling and changing into victims of robberies, kidnappings, extortions, homicides or any of the opposite crimes which have turn out to be commonplace.

PHOTOS: Ecuadorians selecting a brand new president amid rising violence that will scare away voters

Villavicencio’s slaying was the third and most outstanding in a string of killings of political leaders this 12 months.

“I don’t think the election will change anything,” stated pharmacist Leidy Aguirre, 28, who has regularly stopped going out with pals over the previous three years, out of worry of being robbed. “Not even politicians are safe.”

Interior Minister Juan Zapata stated this previous week that the one restriction individuals will face when voting would be the inspection of backpacks. Street distributors won't be allowed close to voting facilities.

The election was referred to as after President Guillermo Lasso, a conservative former banker, dissolved the National Assembly by decree in May to keep away from being impeached over allegations that he didn't intervene to finish a defective contract between the state-owned oil transport firm and a personal tanker firm. He determined to not run within the particular election.

“I don’t think the election will change anything,” stated pharmacist Leidy Aguirre, 28, who has regularly stopped going out with pals over the previous three years, out of worry of being robbed. “Not even politicians are safe.”

The ballots had been printed earlier than one other candidate may substitute for Villavicencio. So they embody the title of the late candidate, who was not among the many prime contenders.

The frontrunner in polling was Luisa González, a lawyer and former lawmaker whose marketing campaign has highlighted her affiliation with the celebration of Correa, the previous president who in 2020 was discovered responsible of corruption and sentenced in absentia to eight years in jail. He has been residing in his spouse’s native Belgium since 2017.

Trailing González, the one feminine presidential candidate, had been millionaire Jan Topic, whose promise of heavy-handed ways towards criminals earned him the nickname “Ecuadorian Rambo;” and Otto Sonnenholzner, who led a part of the nation’s response to the pandemic whereas serving because the third vice chairman throughout the administration of President Lenín Moreno.

Also operating was Yaku Pérez, an Indigenous man promising to defend the surroundings and water from mining and oil extraction.

To win outright, a candidate wants 50% of the votes, or at the least 40% with a 10-point lead over the closest opponent. If wanted, a runoff election would happen Oct. 15. The winner will govern just for the rest of Lasso’s unfinished time period, that means lower than two years.

Voters had been additionally electing a brand new National Assembly and deciding two poll measures - one addressing whether or not to cease oil extraction in a portion of the Amazon jungle and the opposite asking whether or not to authorize the exploitation of minerals resembling gold, silver and copper in forests of the Andean Choco round Quito.

Voting is obligatory in Ecuador for individuals ages 18 by means of 64. Those who don’t comply face a nice of about $45.

Six Colombian males have been arrested in reference to Villavicencio’s killing.

Candidates have elevated their safety and Pérez appeared at a marketing campaign rally Thursday sporting a bulletproof vest. That identical day, Topic’s supporters had been bused to a marketing campaign rally on the conference middle in Guayaquil. They left purses and backpacks within the buses and entered by means of makeshift gates manned by non-public safety guards.

In addition to a common demand for security, the brand new president might want to handle an financial system that's nonetheless fighting the results of the coronavirus pandemic. The nation’s Central Bank decreased its progress expectation for 2023 from 3.1% to 2.6%, an annual financial efficiency that analysts forecast shall be even decrease.

Data from the Ministry of Finance say state coffers obtained $991 million from oil between January and July. That’s lower than half the $2.3 billion obtained throughout the identical interval final 12 months. Meanwhile, tax collections this 12 months fell by $137 million.

Sandra Jarrín misplaced her receptionist job 4 years in the past together with about two dozen different colleagues attributable to employees cuts on the Quito firm the place they labored. She has not managed to discover a new place since then.

“Now everything is virtual, that reduces workspaces,” stated Jarrín, 52. In addition to unemployment, she worries about insecurity. “We are not safe outside, or in our homes.”

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Associated Press author Gonzalo Solano contributed to this report from Quito, Ecuador.

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