Ecuador elects its mayors and provincial prefects
Ecuador elects its local authorities nationwide on 29 November 2026: 23 provincial prefects with their deputies, 222 mayors, 1,366 councillors (909 urban and 457 rural) and 4,131 members of rural parish boards, plus the seven members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS). There are 13,827,643 eligible voters, 496,308 of them abroad, where only the CPCCS is on the ballot. The CNE brought the vote forward from 14 February 2027 because of the risk of El Niño; the winners take office on 14 May 2027. It is President Daniel Noboa's first electoral test since No won all four questions of his 16 November 2025 referendum, and his ADN movement is running in every major race. Correísmo, which governs Quito, Pichincha and Manabí and also won Guayaquil and Guayas in 2023, arrives with the Citizen Revolution party suspended by the electoral court in the Caja Chica case and runs under allied labels, chiefly the Socialist Party. Guayaquil's mayor, Aquiles Álvarez, is in prison and not running; Luisa González, barred from the Manabí race, was detained on 22 October. The only published poll covering all six main races, by AtlasIntel, with no known CNE registration, puts ADN ahead in Guayaquil, Guayas, Pichincha and Azuay, shows a statistical tie in Cuenca and the correísta mayor Pabel Muñoz ahead in Quito.
The races that matter
Mayors and prefects are elected in a single round: most votes wins. Our average includes only pollsters registered with the CNE, with no party ties and a measured track record: Cedatos (2.1-point miss in the 2025 runoff, though it called the wrong winner in all three races it polled at the 2023 local elections) and Comunicaliza (3.7 in the 2025 first round). As of Nov 5, neither had published full voting intention for these races; the law allows publication until Nov 18.
| Race | Incumbent | Top-rated pollsters (Cedatos, Comunicaliza) |
|---|---|---|
| Quito mayor | Pabel Muñoz (Correísta), seeking re-election | no poll published |
| Guayaquil mayor | Aquiles Álvarez, jailed and not running; acting mayor Tatiana Coronel | no poll published |
| Cuenca mayor | Cristian Zamora, suspended by the Electoral Disputes Court | no poll published |
| Pichincha prefect | Paola Pabón (Correísta), term-limited | no poll published |
| Guayas prefect | Carlos Encalada, since Marcela Aguiñaga resigned | no poll published |
| Azuay prefect | Juan Cristóbal Lloret left to run in Cuenca | no poll published |
Left out of the average: AtlasIntel, Click Report and Click Research (not registered with the CNE), Polidata and Negocios & Estrategias (registration denied), Telcodata (its owner is a candidate's father), Informe Confidencial (unregistered; missed Guayaquil in 2023) and Omar Maluk (a 2025 candidate). A poll credited to Cedatos only counts if it is on the pollster's own website: fake Cedatos polls circulated in 2023 and 2025. The law bans publishing polls from Nov 19 to 28.
How it works
Provincial prefects (on a ticket with a deputy, one man and one woman) and mayors are elected in a single round: whoever gets the most votes wins, with no majority threshold. Councillors and parish board members come from lists, with seats allocated by divisors 1, 2, 3, 4 (D'Hondt), the rule since the July 2025 reform. The seven CPCCS members hold a national mandate and are also voted on abroad.
Results
Polls close at 5 PM in mainland Ecuador (same time in Washington, DC). The law requires the National Electoral Council (CNE) to publish provisional results and the image of every tally sheet, without interruption, from the first data. Exit polls may only be released after 5 PM.
Likely candidates: Pabel Muñoz (Alianza Ciudadana, confirmed); Harold Burbano (Acción Democrática Nacional, confirmed); Jorge Yunda (Avanza, confirmed); Wilson Merino (Imparables, confirmed); Carla Larrea (CREO, confirmed); Bernardo Jijón (Sociedad Patriótica, confirmed); Linda Romero (Partido Social Cristiano, confirmed); Galo Almeida (Centro Democrático, confirmed); other names floated: 40
Government approval
| Pollster | Fieldwork | Sample | Who | Approve | Disapprove | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIEES | 27/09/26 | 820 face-to-face | Daniel Noboa CALIFICACIÓN LABOR: PRESIDENTE DANIEL NOBOA | 49.0% | 50.0% | – |
| Cedatos | 31/08/26 | 2,820 face-to-face | Daniel Noboa APROBACIÓN A LA GESTIÓN DEL PRESIDENTE DANIEL NOBOA | 41.0% | 56.3% | – |
| CIEES | 30/08/26 | 820 face-to-face | Daniel Noboa CALIFICACIÓN LABOR: PRESIDENTE DANIEL NOBOA | 32.0% | 68.0% | – |
Vote polls
No poll with published methodology has measured the vote yet.
Only recent polls with published fieldwork and sample, from independent pollsters, are included; for each pollster the latest wave counts, and the previous one shows the trend. Polls commissioned by a party, campaign or government, or run by a pollster whose owner or director is tied to a party, are excluded.
Date, posts and voters: CNE call of Aug 1, 2026, as reproduced by El Comercio, Primicias, El Universo, El Diario and Vistazo (the CNE website refused our access). Rules: Code of Democracy, text published by the TCE. Polls: each outlet, linked in the dataset.