The snap election was called after President Guillermo Lasso - a conservative former banker - dissolved parliament to avoid impeachment.
Ms Gonzalez, a 45-year-old protégé of leftist ex-President Rafael Correa, was seen as the firm favourite of the eight politicians vying for the presidency.
But the assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio on 9 August in the capital, Quito, made the election difficult to predict.
Ms Gonzalez’s promises of a return of generous social programmes appeal to Ecuadoreans hit hard by an economic crisis.
Mr Correa still looms large in the country: he cut poverty while in power, but was then mired in corruption scandals and is now in exile in Belgium.
Mr Villavicencio, 59, was an outspoken journalist who had uncovered corruption and denounced links between organised crime and officials.
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