Ecuador’s President Suggests Presidential Election Was Rigged

President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa claimed on Tuesday that there were “many irregularities” in Sunday’s 2025 general elections, in which he narrowly defeated establishment socialist candidate Luisa González in the first round.

Ecuador held a general election on Sunday to choose the next president, vice president, and members of the National Assembly for the next four years.

While the first round of the presidential election featured 16 candidates, the presidential race was primarily centered around current incumbent President Noboa and his outsider ADN Party and González, a socialist lawyer and protégée of former president and fugitive convicted felon Rafael Correa. González ran as the candidate for Correa’s establishment Citizen Revolution socialist party.

The most recent results published by Ecuador’s National Electoral Council (CNE) at press time indicate that Noboa obtained 44.18 percent of the votes against González’s 43.95 percent. 

While exit polls published on Election Day appeared to indicate that Noboa was on track to receive enough votes to be elected in the first round, neither candidate obtained 50 percent of the vote, or at least 40 percent with a ten-point lead, automatically prompting a runoff election between Noboa and González scheduled for Sunday, April 13. In light of the narrow results, Noboa suspended a post-election campaign event that his party had scheduled in the capital city of Quito.

The Ecuadorian president spoke for the first time since the election on Tuesday, granting an interview to the local Radio Centro outlet in which he denounced “irregularities” in Sunday’s process and claimed to be in possession of “evidence” of possible fraud that, he says, prevented him from winning with “a higher figure.”

“There have been many irregularities and we were still counting. We were still checking in certain provinces that there were things that did not add up or even did not add up with the [Organization of American States] quick count, which put us with a higher figure, the work is still not finished,” Noboa said. 

“We have the evidence and that. From there we have also made challenges (…) That exists,” he continued, pointing out the alleged irregularities as the reasons why he did not celebrate or issued statements on Sunday after the first results were published.

Neither President Noboa nor any representative of the ADN party have publicly presented the alleged evidence at press time

In spite of the narrow results, which several international outlets have described as a “technical tie,” Noboa stressed that his political organization won in the first round and asserted that “we are in the second round, we are the leading political force. Our national movement is nine months old.”

The Organization of American States (OAS) released a statement Tuesday afternoon informing that the results presented by Ecuador’s CNE “coincide” with the data obtained through a quick recount of its electoral mission to Ecuador. The OAS added that, to date, its electoral mission “has not identified or received indications of widespread irregularities that could alter the results of the election.”

Similarly, the European Union announced Tuesday that its electoral mission to Ecuador found the elections to have been “transparent, well-organised and peaceful” but with “pending challenges” ahead of the upcoming runoff.

Sunday’s general election also resulted in narrow results for Congress, with a new, near-bipartisan composition split between the ADN and Citizen Revolution but with neither party securing a majority in the 151-seat legislative body. Noboa told Radio Centro that while the vote count is not yet closed and there are seats pending assignment, it is clear that ADN and Citizen Revolution will have the two largest blocs in Congress for the next four years.

Noboa’s mother, Anabella Azín, ran for Congress during Sunday’s election and was reportedly the parliamentary candidate that received the most amount of votes, as such, she will preside over the inaugural session of Congress on May 14, where a final composition will be organized between the elected lawmakers.

Asked if he agrees with his mother potentially occupying the presidency of the Assembly, Noboa answered yes.

“I will always agree that my mother should be President of the Assembly, she has the merits to do so. It will also be her decision,” Noboa said.

The upcoming Sunday, April 13 runoff election between Noboa and González will mark the second time both candidates face each other in a runoff following the October 2023 snap election, where Noboa was elected to serve as President for the remainder of the 2021-2025 constitutional term. That special election was triggered by conservative former President Guillermo Lasso invoking an obscure “mutually assured destruction” constitutional clause in early 2023 that dissolved both the executive and legislative branches.

Lasso invoked the obscure constitutional clause in response to leftist lawmakers launching 14 different impeachments against him between 2021 and 2023, which made it impossible for him to govern.