<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> Next Sunday, April 13, <strong>189,654 Ecuadorians</strong> resident in Spain are eligible to exercise their right to vote in the second round of the <strong>General Elections of Ecuador,</strong> to elect the presidential binomial of the 2025-2029 legislature. The <strong>National Electoral Council (CNE),</strong> in coordination with the Ecuadorian consulates in Spain, has set up 19 polling stations: <strong>Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, Seville, Malaga </strong>and<strong> Palma de Mallorca,</strong> among other locations. Polling stations will be open from 9 to 19 hours (Spanish time), after which the counting of votes will begin. Citizens are advised to plan their working day in advance and consider that the peak hours are usually between 9 and 11 o'clock and 17 and 19 o'clock. For this reason, it is preferable to come at intermediate times, when the flow is lower and the process more agile. Voters can consult their polling place and obtain information about the candidates and their work plans on this website or in the CNE mobile app. In order to exercise the right to vote, it is necessary to have made the change of address, either at a consular office or on the CNE <a href="http://www.cne.gob.ec"><strong>website,</strong> </a>until 15 May 2024. It should be recalled that, according to article 62.2 of the Ecuadorian Constitution, voting abroad is optional. Ecuador has 456,485 voters residing abroad, 270,467 in Europe, Asia and Oceania; 151,603 in the United States and Canada, and 34,415 in Latin America and Africa. The vote of residents in Spain (more than 189,000) represents 70% of the foreign vote in Europe, Asia and Oceania and about 42% of the total vote abroad. The Consulate in Madrid (including its premises in Ifema and Toledo) is the largest in Spain and has a total of 73,186 voters, representing 38.5% of the electorate throughout Spain. It has 91 Voting Boards in Madrid and 2 in Toledo. The average participation in all of Spain in this type of election is 30-35%, however, in the first round of elections held on 9 February the participation of Ecuadorians in Spain exceeded 38% and in the case of voters in Madrid, 42%.
