Ecuador elects on national level a head of state, (a president), and a legislature. The President of the Republic and the Vice President are elected on one ballot for a four-year term by the people. The National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) has 137 members elected for a four-year term in the 24 provinces (so multi-seat constituencies).
Ecuador has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone; consequently; parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.
Conduction of Elections
Ecuador has a mandatory universal voting system. Citizens who fail to vote are fined. To facilitate universal voting, elections are always held on Sundays and seen as community events where everyone must contribute to the work of voting days.
Presidential Elections
Presidential elections in Ecuador are conducted every fourr years.
Elections use a run off system where a candidate must get over 40% of valid votes and have a minimum 10% lead over the runner up to win in only one round. This is known as winning an "absolute majority".
If no candidate meets that criteria, then the two leading candidates will run against each other in a second election that is held within 45 days off the first election. This stage is known as "Ballotage".
Whoever comes out of Ballotage with more votes will win the presidency.
Past elections
2013 presidential elections
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rafael Correa | Movimiento Alianza PAIS | 4,918,482 | 57.17 |
| Guillermo Lasso | Creating Opportunities | 1,951,102 | 22.68 |
| Lucio Gutiérrez | January 21 Patriotic Society Party | 578,875 | 6.73 |
| Mauricio Rodas | SUMA | 335,532 | 3.90 |
| Álvaro Noboa | Institutional Renewal Party of National Action | 319,956 | 3.72 |
| Alberto Acosta | Plurinational Unity of the Lefts | 280,539 | 3.26 |
| Norman Wray | Ruptura 25 | 112,525 | 1.31 |
| Nelson Zavala | Ecuadorian Roldosist Party | 105,592 | 1.23 |
| Invalid/blank votes | 863,257 | – | |
| Total | 9,465,860 | 100 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 11,675,441 | 81.09 | |
| Source: CNE | |||
2013 National Assembly elections
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR | Constituency | Abroad | Total | +/– | |||
| Alianza PAIS | 45,955,995 | 52.30 | 8 | 86 | 6 | 100 | +41 |
| Creating Opportunities | 10,032,804 | 11.42 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 11 | New |
| Social Christian Party | 7,901,315 | 8.99 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 6 | –5 |
| January 21 Patriotic Society Party | 4,955,320 | 5.64 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 | –14 |
| Plurinational Unity of the Lefts | 4,151,000 | 4.72 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 | –4 |
| Ecuadorian Roldosist Party | 3,960,188 | 4.51 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | –2 |
| SUMA | 2,829,034 | 3.22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | New |
| Institutional Renewal Party of National Action | 2,640,181 | 3.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | –7 |
| Partido Avanza | 2,568,156 | 2.92 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | New |
| Ruptura 25 | 2,179,383 | 2.48 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| Socialist Party – Broad Front of Ecuador | 698,829 | 0.80 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | –1 |
| Independents and Regionalists | – | – | – | 3 | 0 | 3 | – |
| Invalid/blank votes | 2,083,795 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 9,443,716 | 100 | 15 | 116 | 6 | 137 | +13 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 11,675,441 | 80.89 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Source: CNE, El Universo | |||||||
See also
- National electoral calendar 2017
External links
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- Ecuador's Presidential Election: Background on Economic Issues, issue brief from the Center for Economic and Policy Research