Candidate Luisa González, in Canuto, Ecuador.HANDOUT (via Portal)
The first official results began to clarify the electoral panorama in Ecuador. Correísmo candidate Luisa González remains in the lead, albeit far from winning the first round, polls showed. According to early data, businessman Daniel Noboa caused the surprise of the day by placing second, earning a place in the second round. Noboa, the youngest of the candidates at 35, took his participation for granted on October 15 and announced that he would fight Correísmo.
Christian Zurita (the replacement for the murdered Fernando Villavicencio) and Jan Topic, the so-called Ecuadorian Bukele, remain in third and fourth despite being almost 10 points behind Noboa, preventing them from continuing in the race. The first to withdraw from the election campaign in view of the preliminary results was Otto Sonnenholzner, former Vice-President of Lenin Moreno, who, with just under 10% of the minutes published, acknowledged his defeat in front of his supporters. Topic soon followed suit.
Noboa’s success was not foreseeable, neither the polls nor the election radar had given him more attention and excluded him from a second round of voting. His participation in last weekend’s presidential debate, days after Villavicencio’s assassination, could catapult his candidacy to the acclaim of some analysts. The young businessman, a member of Ecuador’s business elite, is the son of millionaire Álvaro Noboa, who unsuccessfully tried to become president up to five times.
Daniel Noboa, after the vote in Manglaralto, Ecuador. PRESS DEPARTMENT DANIEL NOBOA (via Portal)
Election day passed without incident, although candidates had to go to the polls under tight security measures. The assassination of Villavicencio, an assassination that shook the election campaign and showed Ecuadorians the most real face of a violence that does not stop, clouded the election campaign and gave his candidacy an emotional component that his friend and journalist Christian Zurita continued on his behalf , who chosen for the war front, surrounded by soldiers and shields, wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest.
President Guillermo Lasso, who did not stand for re-election, pledged that with these snap elections he would restore the powers of government that had been entrusted to him. Lasso surprisingly decided to shorten his term last May when he announced the dissolution of the assembly and the call for elections. The President was then involved in a political trial for alleged corruption. The president who wins the October elections will only rule until the end of Lasso’s 18-month term.
A year and a half that seems short given the challenges that Ecuador is facing and that have become clear in this campaign. Insecurity is already the number one concern of all citizens and it does not seem easy to combat. Violence has increased over the past three years, hand in hand with the increasing presence of drug trafficking groups from Colombia and Mexico, who have established themselves in the country and are struggling for control of areas, particularly on the Pacific coast. In places like Guayaquil, some polling stations woke up armored to ensure the safety of citizens who have not been walking the streets quietly for a long time.
News in development