The country is suffering from drug gang violence; a candidate was shot dead shortly before the first round of elections. In the runoff election, the Ecuadorians chose a 35-year-old entrepreneur.
After a bloody election campaign, Ecuadorians have elected their country’s youngest president to date. The 35-year-old entrepreneur Daniel Noboa won the runoff election on Sunday, as the head of the electoral authority CNE, Diana Atamaint, announced. Given his lead of 52.29 percent to 47.71 percent after more than 90 percent of the votes were counted, the result was irreversible. Noboa’s opponent Luisa González and incumbent President Guillermo Lasso congratulated him on his victory.
Noboa ran for the Acción Democrática Nacional (National Democratic Action) party alliance and is considered a center-right politician. During the election campaign, he presented himself as a representative of the younger generation with a market-liberal program for the ailing economy. His father, the banana tycoon Álvaro Noboa, had run for president five times.
Presidential candidate Villavicencio was shot
However, Noboa is only allowed to hold the office of head of state and government for around 18 months from mid-December – until the end of the term of office intended for the current President Guillermo Lasso. The conservative dissolved parliament in May after two years in office when it initiated impeachment proceedings against him over embezzlement allegations. The 68-year-old triggered for the first time the process of “Muerte Cruzada” (i.e.: mutual destruction) provided for in the 2008 constitution, which made early elections necessary.
Lasso decided not to run again. The first round of elections took place in August during a state of emergency he declared. Eleven days earlier, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who vowed to fight corruption, was shot dead after a campaign rally in the capital Quito. Several other politicians have been killed this year. The candidates wore bulletproof vests in public.
Ecuador is considered an important transit country for cocaine
Violence has increased dramatically in Ecuador in recent years. The murder rate of around 25 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants last year was the highest in the history of the Andean country and one of the highest in Latin America. A few days ago, seven suspects in the Villavicencio murder case were found dead in prisons. Gangs linked to powerful Mexican cartels are fighting for control of drug trafficking routes. Ecuador, a neighboring country of Colombia with about 17 million inhabitants, is an important transit country for cocaine from South America that is smuggled to the United States and Europe.
If she wins, the 45-year-old González would have become Ecuador’s first female president. She belongs to the left-wing camp of ex-President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), who was convicted of corruption and lives in exile in Belgium. González won the first round of elections with 33.6 percent of the vote. According to preliminary results, her party, Revolución Ciudadana (Citizens’ Revolution), was the strongest force in the simultaneous parliamentary election with 48 of the 137 seats.
Noboa came second in the first round with around 23.5 percent of the vote. According to Atamaint, participation in the runoff election was a good 82 percent of the more than 13 million eligible voters.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
