Preliminary results show Ecuador to hold presidential runoff

QUITO - Ecuador's presidential poll will proceed to a second round runoff as no candidate seems to be able to win outright after more than 90 percent of the vote have been counted.

With 92.82 percent of the vote counted so far, Daniel Noboa, the incumbent president and candidate of the National Democratic Action, is leading with 44.5 percent, according to figures of the National Electoral Council released on Monday.

Noboa is closely followed by Luisa Gonzalez, the candidate of the Citizen Revolution Movement, who has garnered 43.86 percent of the vote.

In third place was Leonidas Iza, the candidate of the Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement, with 5.04 percent.

According to Ecuador's Constitution, a candidate is elected president in the first round if he/she secures either more than 50 percent of the vote or at least 40 percent of the vote while leading the runner-up by more than 10 percentage points.

Ecuadorans went to the polls on Sunday to elect a president, a vice president, 151 members of the National Assembly and five members of the Andean Parliament.