QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuadoran presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot to death by gunmen at a political rally in Quito Wednesday night, less than two weeks before the country’s elections, police said.

Villavicencio, who was a member of Ecuador’s National Assembly before it was dissolved in May, was one of the leading candidates in the first round of voting Aug. 20 to succeed President Guillermo Lasso. He was shot several times as he left the rally at a high school in northern Quito, said General Manuel Iñiguez, a deputy commander of the Ecuadoran national police.