QUITO: Ecuadoreans headed to the polls on Sunday in a presidential election tarnished by the murder of a top candidate, which cast a spotlight on the violence ravaging a once-peaceful nation caught up in the illicit global drug trade.

Polls opened at 1200 GMT as Ecuadoreans picked a successor to Guillermo Lasso, who called a snap election to avoid an impeachment trial just two years after his election.

Soldiers have been deployed across the small South American country to secure the vote following a tense campaign in which the eight presidential candidates have campaigned in bulletproof vests.

Ecuador has in recent years become a playground for foreign drug mafia seeking to export cocaine, stirring up a brutal war between local gangs.

Several political assassinations marked the run-up to the vote, with the murder of serious presidential contender Fernando Villavicencio just 11 days from the election underscoring the challenges facing the country.

“These are completely atypical elections, in a situation basically of horror that Ecuador is going through... due to the existing violence, but which manifested itself in a more acute and atrocious way” with Villavicencio’s murder, political scientist Anamaria Correa Crespo said.

Last year, the country hit a record of 26 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, higher than the rate in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2023