ECUADORIAN presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has been shot dead at a political rally in Quito just a few weeks before election day.
Villavicencio was a member of Ecuador’s National Assembly before its dissolution in May and was one of the leading candidates in the first round of voting to succeed President Guillermo Lasso.
He was shot multiple times as he left the rally at a high school in northern Quito, according to General Manuel Iñiguez of the Ecuadorian national police.
He was rushed to a nearby clinic, where he was pronounced dead at the age of 59.
Iñiguez said a police officer was also injured in the attack.