Ecuadorians living overseas successfully voted this past Sunday in
National Elections that included the President, Vice-President and
the National Assembly.

IOM participated as an International Observer of the
out-of-country voting, with IOM staff present in cities with high
numbers of registered voters: Madrid, Barcelona and Murcia in
Spain; Milan in Italy; Santiago in Chile; Caracas in Venezuela; New
York, New Jersey, Chicago and Miami in the United States and
Toronto in Canada.

IOM observers reporting from all cities concurred that the
electoral processes was successfully carried out. 

According to Ecuador's National Electoral Council (NEC), 184,584
Ecuadorians living abroad were registered to vote in Sunday's
General Elections.  Of this number approximately 47 per cent
cast their ballots.  The official results will be made public
by the NEC around 11 May.

According to a Parallel Voting Tabulation (PVT) conducted by
Citizen Participation (a local NGO), Rafael Correa, the current
President, received 54 per cent of the vote, which means there will
be no need for a second round.

This is the fifth time that IOM has acted as an official
observer for the out-of-country voting process for the Ecuadorian
diaspora. 

IOM was in charge of the logistical and administrative
implementation of the European Union Election Observation Mission
to Ecuador (EUEOM ECUADOR 2009), and of the security and operations
of this mission.

For further information please contact:

Ana María Guzmán

IOM Quito

Tel: +593.2.22.53.948/49

E-mail: "mailto:aguzman@iom.int">aguzman@iom.int