Barres, who must pay $25 (£20) a month to a local gang to avoid harassment or worse, said she would vote for González because she believed she could reduce crime across the board and improve the economy.
Noboa defeated González in the October 2023 runoff of a snap election that was triggered by the decision of the then president, Guillermo Lasso, to dissolve the national assembly and shorten his own mandate as a result.
Ecuador goes to the polls amid rise in drug-related gang violence Voters who have become victims of crime wave linked to cocaine trade will determine outcome of presidential election.
González, 47, held various government jobs during the presidency of Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 to 2017 with free-spending socially conservative policies and grew increasingly authoritarian in his last years as president.
Ecuadorians are voting in a presidential election that has shaped up to be a repeat of the 2023 race, when they chose a young, conservative millionaire over the leftist protege of the country’s most influential president this century.
