VOTERS in Ecuador look set to be heading for the polls again in October after Sunday’s special election offered no clear winner.

With more than 85 per cent of votes counted, left-wing candidate Luisa Gonzalez is leading with more than 33 per cent of the vote.

A lawyer and former MP, Ms Gonzalez has emphasised her links with the party of former president Rafael Correa, who remains influential despite being found guilty of corruption in 2020 and sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison. 

Ms Gonzales is followed by former MP Daniel Noboa, who won some 25 per cent support.

He is the son of Alvaro Noboa, who sought Ecuador’s presidency five times and grew an empire based on bananas, the country’s main crop.

Christian Zurita was in third place with about 16 per cent. His name was not on the ballot paper but he replaced Fernando Villavicencio, whose killing this month as he left a campaign rally in the capital Quito rocked the nation and laid bare people's fears over an unprecedented surge in violence in the country.

To win outright, a candidate needed 50 per cent of the vote or to have at least 40 per cent with a 10-point lead over the closest opponent.

The election was called after president Guillermo Lasso, a conservative former banker, dissolved the national assembly by decree in May to avoid being impeached over allegations that he failed to intervene to end a faulty contract between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker firm. 

The winner of the October 15 run-off will govern for only two years, the remainder of Mr Lasso’s unfinished term.