Ecuadorians Vote in Spain for the Elections in Their Country

On Sunday, thousands of Ecuadorians exercised their right to vote in various cities across Spain for the second round of presidential elections in their country.

"The voting process is progressing absolutely smoothly, and the turnout is normal," the Ecuadorian Ambassador Andres Vallejo said at one of the 19 designated polling stations.

He expressed confidence that the level of participation would be in line with what is traditionally seen among Ecuadorians residing in Spain.

By Sunday morning, several thousand out of the 179,137 registered voters in the country had already cast their ballots. Spain is home to one of the largest Ecuadorian communities abroad.

This time, voting for overseas residents is in-person, following issues with the electronic system during the first round of elections last August.

The Ambassador Vallejo mentioned that there was a "system overload" back then, which will not occur during this second round, given the in-person voting method.

The National Electoral Council of Ecuador had invalidated the overseas vote in the previous round, as only a little over 51,000 out of 400,000 citizens were able to vote electronically.

The runoff will determine the successor to President Guillermo Lasso, with the candidates being Luisa Gonzalez (Citizen Revolution) and Daniel Noboa (National Democratic Alliance). The winner will serve for only 16 months to complete the remainder of Lasso's term.