Businessman Noboa secures presidential win in Ecuador over leftist challenger

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Daniel Noboa, a young businessman from a wealthy banana-exporting family, won Sunday’s presidential elections in Ecuador over socialist candidate Luisa Gonzalez, according to official results.

With 97% of the votes tallied by the National Electoral Council, Noboa secured 52.11% of the vote, surpassing Gonzalez's 47.89%.

“Today we have made history. Ecuadorian families chose a New Ecuador. They chose a country with security and employment,” Noboa posted on X. “We are striving for a country of realities where promises do not remain in the campaign, and corruption is punished.”

Noboa, 35, who was born in Guayaquil, will be the youngest person to lead the country. He is the son of banana tycoon and politician Alvaro Noboa, who made five unsuccessful runs for the presidency. The new president has committed to job creation, especially for the youth, attracting foreign investments, and leveraging technology to combat the alarming rise in crime.

He defeated Gonzalez, a member of the Citizen Revolution Movement and a disciple of exiled former President Rafael Correa.

Gonzalez, a 45-year-old former lawmaker who had garnered 34% of the vote in the initial round, had pledged to reinstate the extensive social programs initiated by Correa. Her promises included free medicine, enhanced worker protections and direct assistance for those in need. She proposed utilizing $2.5 billion in international reserves to revive the economy.

Gonzalez accepted her defeat and thanked her supporters.

"To those who did not vote for us, well, our congratulations, because the candidate they chose has won and, as Ecuadorians, we also embrace them," she said in a speech following Noboa's victory confirmation.

"And, of course, to the candidate, now president-elect, Daniel Noboa, our deepest congratulations because it is democracy. We have never called to set fire to a city nor have we ever gone out shouting fraud."

Noboa, who is set to serve as president until May 2025, faces the challenging task of addressing an economy in crisis, which has driven millions of Ecuadorians to migrate abroad.

The incoming president must also tackle the pressing issue of restoring stability to a nation grappling with a surge in gang violence.

According to Open Democracy, a UK-based independent media platform, Ecuador's homicide rate has surged by 245% from 2020 to 2022. The country concluded 2022 with its highest homicide rate in history with 26 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants based on official data. These numbers continue to rise, despite President Guillermo Lasso's government imposing a state of emergency in an attempt to curb the issue.

The election campaign was marked by the assassination of anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio on Aug. 9, a crime that deeply shook the nation.

Villavicencio, a former journalist, had been a vocal critic of the connections between organized crime and government officials. The infiltration of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels into local gangs in Ecuador has further complicated the situation, with seven suspects in the candidate's murder recently killed in prisons in Guayaquil and Quito. Ecuador has become a crucial transit point for cocaine smuggled to Europe.

Noboa has made commitments to allocate more funding to the police and employ the military to safeguard ports, which are often used for drug trafficking, and prisons under the control of violent gangs.