General elections were held in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

on 31 May 1998, with a second round of the presidential elections on 12 July.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

(2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II'', p380 The result was a victory for

Jamil Mahuad Jorge Jamil Mahuad Witt (born 29 July 1949) is an Ecuadorian lawyer, academic and former politician who served the 41st president of Ecuador from 1998 until he was deposed in a coup in 2000. He previously served as the 17th mayor of Quito from ...

of the

Popular Democracy Popular democracy is a notion of direct democracy based on referendums and other devices of empowerment and concretization of popular will. The concept evolved out of the political philosophy of populism, as a fully democratic version of this p ...

(DP) party, who won the run-off with 51.2% of the vote. The DP alliance also emerged as the largest party in the

National Congress National Congress is a term used in the names of various political parties and legislatures. Political parties *Ethiopia: Oromo National Congress, original name of the Oromo People's Congress *Guyana: People's National Congress Reform *India: **In ...

, winning 32 of the 120 seats.Nohlen, p396

Background

Following the

1996 general elections General elections were held in India on 27 April, 2 May and 7 May 1996 to elect the members of the 11th Lok Sabha, eleventh Lok Sabha. The elections resulted in a hung parliament with no single party having a clear majority. The Bharatiya Jan ...

, President

Abdalá Bucaram Abdalá Jaime Bucaram Ortiz ( ; ; born 4 February 1952) is an Ecuadorian politician and lawyer who was the 38th president of Ecuador from 1996 until his removal from office in 1997. As president, Bucaram was nicknamed "El Loco Que Ama" ("The Madm ...

was removed from office by Congress nine months later on grounds of mental incapacity. Fabian Alarcon thereupon took his place as caretaker Head of State.

Contestants

The leading contestants of the six (including two women) vying for the presidency were Jamil Mahuad (DP), the mayor of

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

, and

Álvaro Noboa Álvaro Fernando Noboa Pontón (born November 21, 1950) is an Ecuadorian businessman and politician. He is the father of the incumbent president, Daniel Noboa. Noboa has been actively involved in politics as a perennial candidate, unsuccessf ...

(

Ecuadorian Roldosist Party The Ecuadorian Roldosist Party (PRE) (''Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano'') was a populist political party in Ecuador. The party was named after former President Jaime Roldós. It was founded after Roldós' death by his brother-in-law Abdalá Buca ...

), a wealthy businessman. Campaign debates were marked by personal accusations of drug links and threatened lawsuits between the two rivals, alongside statements on substantive policy questions relating primarily to corruption and the country's ailing economy. Problems in this latter sector (high inflation, budget deficit) had been aggravated by the sociological and infrastructural damage caused by the climatic phenomenon known as

El Niño EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

and the worldwide drop in oil prices, Ecuador's main export earner. Mahuad advocated an intense program of private investment to achieve a 5% annual growth rate, privatizations, job creation and housing construction.

Results

President

National Congress

References

{{Ecuadorian elections

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Elections in Ecuador

Election and referendum articles with incomplete results