General elections were held in Ecuador on 19 May 1996, with a second round of the presidential elections on 7 July.[1] Although Jaime Nebot of the Social Christian Party received the most votes in the first round, Abdalá Bucaram of the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party won the run-off with 54.5% of the vote.[2] The Social Christian Party remained the largest in the Chamber of Deputies, winning 27 of the 82 seats.[3]
Until the 2013 vote, this was the last election held after the natural expiration of a four-year presidential term. This due to a decade of political and economical instability that Ecuador experienced after Bucaram was impeached by the Congress in early 1997 and that lasted until Rafael Correa's inauguration in early 2007.[4]