QUITO, Ecuador, April 12, (AP): A conservative young millionaire who is Ecuador 's incumbent president and a leftist lawyer are again the choices as Ecuadorians head to the polls on Sunday in the country’s second presidential runoff election in less than two years. President Daniel Noboa and leftist challenger Luisa González have promised voters solutions to the extortions, killings, kidnappings and other crimes that became part of everyday life as Ecuador emerged from the pandemic. Voters chose Noboa over González in the runoff of a snap election in October 2023.

Both advanced to Sunday’s contest after being the top vote-getters in February’s first-round election. Noboa won 44.17% of the votes while González garnered 44%. Analysts expect Sunday’s results to have a very tight margin. Polls open at 7 a.m. local time (1200 GMT; 8 am EST) and close at 5 p.m. (2200 GMT; 6 pm EST) Initial results are expected two hours after polls close.

Voters are primarily worried about the violence that transformed the country, starting in 2021 - a spike in crime tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. Both candidates have promised tough-on-crime policies, better equipment for law enforcement and international help to fight drug cartels and local criminal groups.

More than 13 million people are eligible to vote, which is mandatory for adults up to the age of 65. It is optional for people aged 16 and 17 and over 65. Failure to vote results in a $46 fine. In 2023, Noboa and González were largely unknown to most voters as they sought the presidency for the first time. They were first-term lawmakers in May 2023, when then-President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly, shortening his own mandate as a result and triggering that year’s snap election.

Noboa’s first foray into politics was his stint as lawmaker. An heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, Noboa opened an event-organizing company when he was 18 and then joined his father’s Noboa Corp., where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas. González, 47, held various government jobs during the presidency of Rafael Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 through 2017 with free-spending socially conservative policies and grew increasingly authoritarian in his last years as president.