The second round of Out-of-Country Voting in Ecuador's presidential
elections on Sunday, the first election that Ecuadorians living
abroad were able to participate in and which were observed by IOM,
went well.

"According to IOM's observation, the voting was carried out
smoothly and showed enhanced organization compared to the first
round, thanks to timely information dissemination as well as
logistic and security improvements," noted Alejandro Guidi, IOM's
chief of mission in Ecuador.

During the first round, some problems arose when high numbers of
non-registered Ecuadorians attempted to vote, causing scuffles at
busy polling stations. In order to avoid this situation during the
second round, Ecuadorian consulates formally informed
non-registered Ecuadorians that they would not have access to the
polling stations. 

 

As in the first round, IOM observers were located in the cities
with the highest number of registered voters: Madrid, Murcia and
Barcelona in Spain; Milan, Rome and Genoa in Italy, as well as New
York and New Jersey in the United States. For second round, IOM was
also present in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, which has the
largest numbers of Ecuadorian voters in South America.

 

Simultaneously, in Ecuador's capital, Quito, IOM observers verified
the processing of votes from around the world as they were
transmitted to Supreme Electoral Tribunal by fax and/or email.

The two candidates who passed to the second round were
Álvaro Noboa, from the party PRIAN, and Rafael Correa, from
the party Alianza País. According to exit polls, the
unofficial results show that Rafael Correa is the new President of
Ecuador, with 57% per cent of the vote. The Supreme Electoral
Tribunal (SET) will present the official results within 48
hours.

 

For more information, please contact:

Maria Isabel Moncayo

IOM Quito

Tel. 593.2.2444926

E-mail: "mailto:mmoncayo@oim.org.ec">mmoncayo@oim.org.ec