Ecuador’s April runoff election for president will test the lasting influence of former leftist President Rafael Correa when his protege, lawyer Luisa González, goes up against the conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa.

Noboa says his deployment of the military on the streets and within prisons has reduced violent deaths by 15%, led to a drastic fall in prison violence, and helped in the capture of major gang leaders.

The official outcome of Sunday's vote gave Noboa 44.15% of the votes cast, followed by 43.95% for leftist challenger Luisa Gonzalez - an outcome closer than predicted by opinion polls.

Polls have opened in a presidential election in Ecuador that has shaped up to be a repeat of the 2023 race, when voters chose a young, conservative millionaire over the leftist protégée of the country’s most influential president this century.

An April presidential run-off in Ecuador will pit incumbent Daniel Noboa against leftist Luisa Gonzalez, in an unexpectedly tight contest featuring the same two candidates who were in a 2023 snap election.

President Daniel Noboa, who is known for his aggressive law-and-order policies, failed to win a majority of votes in his re-election bid on Sunday.

A lawyer with limited political experience, Luisa González is vying for Ecuador’s presidency for a second time.

Ecuador's presidential election will proceed to a second round runoff in April as no candidate seems to be able to win outright after more than 90 percent of the vote were counted. With 92.82 percent of the vote counted,