Daniel Noboa stunned voters when, with only a brief stint as a lawmaker and no established political machinery, he outperformed several presidential candidates in a snap election and advanced to a runoff against the protegee of Ecuador’s most influential president this century.

Correa governed Ecuador from 2007 to 2017 with free-spending, socially conservative policies that still polarise voters. Noboa and González are the clear frontrunners in a race where victory requires a candidate to secure 50 percent of the vote or at least 40 percent with a 10-percentage-point lead over the nearest competitor.

Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza, who led protests that nearly unseated Noboa’s predecessor, was tallying 5.26% of the votes, while Andrea Gonzalez, once the vice presidential candidate for an assassinated anti-corruption crusader, won 2.7%.