A shoot-out erupted near a restaurant where Ecuadorean presidential candidate Otto Sonnenholzner was with his family on Saturday, on the eve of Ecuador's general elections.

This comes just days after presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio was gunned down in broad daylight as he left a political rally.

A video circulating on social media captured Sonnenholzner in the midst of greeting a supporter in Guayaquil moments before the shots rang out.

"We just suffered a shoot-out in front of the place where I was breakfasting with my family," Sonnenholzner, a right-wing former vice president, posted on X, previously called Twitter. "Thank God we're all well but we demand an investigation into what occurred."

Police later clarified in a press conference that the violence followed a chase after a robbery at a nearby exercise clothing store.

Authorities confirmed the arrest of five individuals in connection with the crime.

Sonnenholzner's tough-on-crime stance has been amplified following the assassination of Villavicencio, a mere 10 days before the polls.

In his speeches, Sonnenholzner pledged that under his leadership, violent criminals would face lethal police action.

Spate of violence continues

Saturday's shooting comes at a time when the nation's political scene is reeling from a series of violent incidents.

On Friday, Francisco Tamariz, mayor of the coastal city of La Libertad, reported surviving an assassination attempt.

"They tried to kill me," wrote Tamariz on X, referring to the gunmen who fired 30 shots at his vehicle.

A subsequent post on Facebook described two assailants, emerging from a police car, who showered his armored van with bullets.

"In just seconds, they started to riddle the vehicle with bullets...without ever asking who was in it," Tamariz said.

Meanwhile, presidential candidate Daniel Noboa reported an attack on his campaign caravan in Duran on Thursday. However, investigations revealed that the gunfire was not aimed at him.

As Ecuador goes to polls on Sunday, the nation grapples with foreign drug cartels seeking to export cocaine from its shores, igniting fierce clashes among local gangs.

ss/wd (Reuters, AFP)