QUITO/GUAYAQUIL, Oct 16,2023: Business heir Daniel Noboa on Sunday won Ecuador’s presidential election, vowing to rebuild the South American country, which is struggling with a weak economy and rising crime and violence.
Thirty five-year-old Noboa, a surprise qualifier for the run-off in the early election, has pledged to improve the economy and create jobs for young people, as well as to house dangerous criminals on prison ships.
“Tomorrow we start work for this new Ecuador, we start working to rebuild a country seriously battered by violence, by corruption and by hate,” Noboa told supporters during brief remarks in the seaside town of Olon.
“From tomorrow Daniel Noboa starts work as your new president,” he added.
Noboa will face the significant challenge of righting an economy – which has struggled since the coronavirus pandemic and motivated many thousands of Ecuadoreans to migrate – and sharply rising crime, including increases in murders, robberies and prison riots.
The violence, which the outgoing government blames on drug gangs, reached a crescendo during the campaign with the murder of anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead while leaving a Quito campaign event in August.
Ecuador has all the elements needed to be a global example of progress, Noboa has said. He will have just 17 months to govern, serving a truncated term from December this year until May 2025.
Noboa, who has said he will be Ecuador’s youngest-ever president, would be able to run again in the regularly-scheduled 2025 contest.
His victory fulfills a long-held family ambition – he grew up accompanying his banana baron father Alvaro during the latter’s multiple failed attempts to become president.
Noboa had won more than 52% of the vote, while his leftist adversary Luisa Gonzalez won about 48%, with more than 90% of ballot boxes counted.
Gonzalez congratulated Noboa on his victory.
Noboa’s win marks a rebuke by voters of Gonzalez’s mentor, former President Rafael Correa, who has continued to wield considerable political power since he left office, despite a corruption conviction.
