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WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Quito: Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has been shot dead, President Guillermo Lasso said, vowing the murder would not go unpunished.

Local media had earlier reported Villavicencio, a former MP who had been polling at 7.5 per cent voting intention, had been shot at a campaign event in Quito.

Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio speaks during a campaign rally in Quito, Ecuador.Credit: Reuters

“For his memory and his fight, I assure you that this crime will not remain unpunished,” Lasso said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Organised crime has gone very far, but all the weight of the law will fall on them.”

The politician, 59, was the candidate for the Build Ecuador Movement. He was one of the most critical voices against corruption, especially during the government of former president Rafael Correa from 2007 to 2017. He filed many judicial complaints against high-ranking members of the Correa government.

lice guard the hospital where several of the injured were taken after an attack against presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito.Credit: AP

He was married and is survived by five children.

Early accounts show that several others were injured from shrapnel, though authorities did not confirm how many.

Lasso said he would host top security officials at an urgent meeting.

Videos on social media purportedly from the campaign event showed people taking cover and screaming as gunfire sounded.

The killing comes amid a startling wave of violence in the South American nation, with drug trafficking and violent killings on the rise.

Fernando Villavicencio was one of the country’s most critical voices against corruption.Credit: Reuters

More to come

Reuters, AP

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