Businessman Daniel Noboa was elected president of Ecuador this Sunday evening, October 15, becoming the youngest head of state in the history of the country at 35 years old, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced.
The latest available results refer to 94.03% of the votes cast and show Mr Noboa as the winner with 52.3% of the votes.
His opponent, Socialist candidate Luisa Gonzalez, runner-up to former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), would receive 47.7% of the vote. She admitted defeat and congratulated her rival.
82.33% participation
Since “more than 90% of the votes were confirmed at the national level, the CNE considers these results to be irreversible and Ecuador has practically elected Daniel Noboa as president,” explained the president of this body, Diana Atamaint.
In terms of the number of votes, Mr Noboa, who was an MP from May 2021 to May 2023 before running for president, has over 5 million votes, compared to almost 4.6 million for his rival, according to the latest figures available.
The vote, which polls have shown to be very close in recent days, took place without major incidents, with a turnout rate of over 82.33%.
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“Rebuilding a country”
In his victory speech, Daniel Noboa promised to “restore peace” to the country. Overwhelmed by drug trafficking violence, Ecuador has been in political crisis since May and the dissolution of parliament. During the election campaign, a state of emergency was declared in August following the assassination of one of the main candidates, Fernando Villaviciencio, a former journalist with an anti-corruption speech.
“Tomorrow we will begin work for this new Ecuador (…) to rebuild a country seriously affected by violence, corruption and hatred,” said Mr. Noboa.
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“From tomorrow hope begins to work,” he promised and thanked “God, my wife, my parents and all the people who were part of a new, young, unlikely political project whose goal was also to bring a smile back to the world to bring “land.”
“Militarization” as a political project
Smiling, but initially reserved, with a sporty demeanor, he promised “a firm hand” against criminal groups. To this end, he proposes the “militarization of ports and borders to protect strategic export and trade routes” or even the development of “citizen vigilance.”
Other major security projects: the creation of a national intelligence agency that will oversee all intelligence agencies, including the prison administration (SNAI), a “total disaster,” he said, while the country’s prisons are a recurring scene of massacres between inmates of rival gangs.
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The man describes himself as “center-left,” but this neoliberal embodies the Ecuadorian political elite from the private sector and the right-wing environment.
His 76-page program includes four components: “social, economic, institutional and environmental” and is based on a “comprehensive strategy” to address “the root causes of low economic growth and high crime rates,” two related challenges to him.
He will have very little time to make good on his promises: he will rule until early 2025, the end of the term of office of outgoing conservative President Guillermo Lasso, who opted for early elections to avoid being fired over corruption allegations.
He will also have a lot to do to secure a majority in the National Assembly, which is particularly fragmented, where he has only 13 deputies, compared to 48 for the Correist party, for a total of 137 seats.
Son of the country’s greatest fortune
When the results were published on Sunday evening, horn concerts could be heard in the capital.
The newly elected president is the son of businessman Alvaro Noboa, who controls the country’s banana trade and is considered the country’s biggest fortune. The man had unsuccessfully run for president five times, most notably against Rafael Correa in 2006.
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Daniel Noboa is divorced and remarried to a nutrition influencer. He is the father of two children. He studied at the best American universities and founded his first event management company at the age of 18 before joining the family empire, the Noboa Corporation, as director of commercial and maritime affairs and then entering politics.