(EFE).- Ecuador elected this Sunday the young businessman Daniel Noboa as the new president in an extraordinary election in which he once again inflicted an electoral defeat on Correismo in the second round, as was the case in 2021 when the movement of the Former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) also failed to return to power.
Noboa, heiress to one of the country’s richest families, became the youngest elected president in the country’s history at the age of 35 by defeating Correista candidate Luisa González, who was seeking to become the first woman to win a presidential election in Ecuador.
These elections have shown once again that the Citizens’ Revolution, the movement led by Correa, has a high voter base but a low ceiling
The son of the banana magnate Álvaro Noboa achieved in the first attempt what his father had resisted five times when he tried to reach the presidency, and did so in a surprising way, since he did not take part in the election at the beginning of the electoral process. He was the Favorite, but caused a surprise by making it to the second round.
Although he served as a deputy between 2021 and 2023, he was seen by voters as a new face whose political project focused above all on youth and the creation of jobs and opportunities as the main pillar to transform an Ecuador that is experiencing the worst crisis Insecurity and violence of his history.
As in 2021, when Correism lost the presidential elections to Andrés Arauz and Guillermo Lasso, these elections once again showed that the Citizens’ Revolution, the movement led by Correa, has a high voter base but a low ceiling.
While González was the candidate with the most votes in the first round with 33.61% of the vote, she fell below 48% in this second round.
For his part, Noboa came second in the first round with 23.46% of the vote, but reached more than 52% in this second round, supported by right-wing and anti-Correista groups, including left-wing groups as part of the Indigenous Movement.
Noboa was chosen for a short term of just 15 months as he is expected to take office in December to complete the 2021-2025 period that the outgoing president was scheduled to complete.
With a difference of about four percentage points, González accepted defeat and unequivocally congratulated Noboa on the victory, who immediately pointed out in a short speech that “from tomorrow hope begins to work.”
The young businessman and former lawmaker accepted the results with a private party at his beachfront home in Olón, a resort town in the coastal province of Santa Elena, where he had gone to vote in the morning, while his supporters celebrated him in the streets and in convention centers in the cities of Guayaquil and Quito.
Noboa was chosen for a short term of just 15 months as he is expected to take office in December to complete the 2021-2025 period that the outgoing president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, was scheduled to complete.
This period was interrupted by the “death of the crusade” announced last May by Lasso, a constitutional personality with whom he shortened his mandate and forced this extraordinary electoral process by dissolving the National Assembly, dominated by the opposition led by Correism, as this He was preparing to vote on his dismissal as the final step in a political trial in which he was accused of alleged embezzlement (embezzlement).
Thus, Noboa’s mandate ends in 2025, when Ecuador will return to its regular electoral calendar, in which he will have the opportunity to run for re-election to remain in power for another four years.
Other challenges will be to stop the growing economic deficit recorded this year and, above all, to ensure the ability to govern before a National Assembly in which the Correismo will once again be the first force.
Lasso, who had been confident at the start of election day that the country would banish demagoguery and authoritarianism, congratulated Noboa on his victory and invited him to a meeting on Tuesday at the Carondelet presidential palace in Quito to begin the transition.
In these few months that Noboa takes the reins in Ecuador, he will have to face the violence of organized crime and the drug trafficking mafia that has made the country one of the most violent in Latin America in the last five years, from 5.8 to 25 .62 homicides per 100,000 residents, the highest rate since records began.
This situation was also carried over to these elections, with the most serious incident being the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead at the exit of a rally on August 20, 11 days before the first round of voting.
Other challenges will be to stop the growing economic deficit recorded this year and, above all, to improve the ability to govern in the face of a National Assembly in which the Correismo will once again be the first force and will therefore have to reach pacts and consensus that Lasso, who is not could find, was left with virtually no support in the legislature.
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