Ecuadorians have begun voting in a tight presidential run-off pitting the incumbent, Daniel Noboa, against leftist lawyer Luisa Gonzalez.

Diana Atamaint, the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), opened the polls at 7am (12:00 GMT) on Sunday at a ceremony in the capital, Quito. More than 13 million people are eligible to vote.

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Voting, which is compulsory, is due to end at 5pm (22:00 GMT). Analysts expect a close outcome.

Voters are primarily worried about the violence that has transformed the country since 2021 – a spike in crime tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighbouring Colombia and Peru.

Both Noboa, a conservative millionaire, and Gonzalez have promised voters solutions to the extortions, kidnappings, killings and other crimes carried out by local criminal groups allied with Mexican cartels and Albanian organised crime, which have spiked over the past five years.

This is a developing story. More to come …