1978–79 Ecuadorian general election

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Presidential election
16 July 1978 (first round) 29 April 1979 (second round)
Registered	2,088,874
Turnout	75.46% (first round) 80.49% (second round)
Nominee Jaime Roldós Aguilera Sixto Durán Ballén Party CFP PSC Running mate Osvaldo Hurtado José Icaza Popular vote 1,025,148 471,657 Percentage 68.49% 31.51%
First round results by province Second round results by province
President before election Alfredo Poveda Nonpartisan Elected President Jaime Roldós Aguilera CFP

General elections were held in Ecuador in 1978 and 1979.^[1] The first round of the presidential election was held on 16 July 1978, with a second round held alongside parliamentary elections on 29 April 1979.^[1] The presidential election was won by Jaime Roldós Aguilera of the Concentration of People's Forces (CPF), who received 68.5% of the vote in the run-off, becoming the country's first freely-elected president.^[2] The CPF emerged as the largest party in the National Congress, winning 29 of the 69 seats.^[3]

The incumbent military dictatorship barred Assad Bucaram, the popular leader of the CFP from being a candidate in the election.^[4]

The incumbent military dictatorship made attempts to prevent the transfer of power prior to the second round of the elections, including postponing it up to nine months after the first round was held.^[4]

Party		Nationwide			District			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Concentration of People's Forces	445,229	30.94	4	454,910	31.73	25	29
	Democratic Left	265,068	18.42	2	212,091	14.80	13	15
	Social Christian Party	123,411	8.58	1	91,384	6.37	2	3
	Ecuadorian Radical Liberal Party	115,110	8.00	1	138,456	9.66	3	4
	Conservative Party	112,909	7.85	1	126,942	8.86	9	10
	Revolutionary Nationalist Party [es]	108,437	7.54	1	65,150	4.54	1	2
	Democratic Institutionalist Coalition [es]	90,277	6.27	1	85,835	5.99	2	3
	Democratic People's Movement	68,982	4.79	1	70,590	4.92	0	1
	People's Democratic Union	44,810	3.11	0	64,249	4.48	1	1
	National Velasquista Federation [es]	37,740	2.62	0	42,840	2.99	1	1
	Socialist Party of Revolutionary People's Action	26,849	1.87	0	37,596	2.62	0	0
	Ecuadorian Revolutionary Popular Action [es]				43,483	3.03	0	0
Total		1,438,822	100.00	12	1,433,526	100.00	57	69
Valid votes		1,438,822	85.89		1,433,526	85.38
Invalid/blank votes		236,373	14.11		245,398	14.62
Total votes		1,675,195	100.00		1,678,924	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,088,874	80.20		2,088,874	80.37
Source: Nohlen, IPU