October 15, 2006 (2006-10-15) 2009 → 22.84%
56.67% 26.83%
43.33% | 1,246,333
3,517,635 1,464,251
2,689,418 | |
 | ||
On October 15, 2006, Ecuador held a general election. The voters stood to elect a new President, a new National Congress, as well as other positions.
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Since no candidate was able to secure the needed majority of the presidential vote in the first round, a run-off election was held on November 26, 2006. According to preliminary results published by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal on November 28, 2006, Rafael Correa had a clear lead over Álvaro Noboa after 96% of the votes had been counted.
Noteworthy lack of reporting of null votes
Since Ecuador makes voting mandatory for every individual between the age of 18 and 65, individuals may nullify their vote on the ballot, or elect to leave the ballot blank.
In previous elections, the mass media usually counted and displayed null and blank votes as contenders in running tallies from exit polls and final results, both infographically and in spoken language. In contrast to former election processes, this time the media spent almost no time reporting null and blank votes. Infographics and spoken reports simply discounted null and blank votes, electing to sum only non-null votes.
One potential reason for this change in reporting may lie in the discontent of the Ecuadorian electorate with the political candidates: it was thought possible that null choices could have gathered the most votes, even more than the favourite candidates.
According to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, the first-round total of null and blank votes was 1,091,833, which is less than the vote for either of the top two candidates.
Run-off
On November 28, 2006, Correa was declared the winner, although Noboa did not accept defeat, and suggested that he might challenge the validity of the ballot.
According to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), out of 97.29% of the votes counted, 57.07% were for Correa and 42.96% for Noboa. Among others, the Organization of American States, US ambassador Linda Jewell, and representatives of many South American countries have recognised Correa as the winner of the election. However, as of November 29, 2006, Álvaro Noboa had still not admitted defeat.
Rafael Correa was duly sworn in as president for a four-year term on January 15, 2007.