Ecuador: Mr. Daniel Noboa is set to become Ecuador’s youngest President with a margin of around five points over his opponent Ms. Luisa González.
With 90 percent of votes counted, Ecuador’s electoral council stated that Mr. Noboa had 52.29 percent of the vote, against 47.71 percent for the leftist lawyer Ms. González.
Ms. González, the hand-picked candidate of former President Mr. Rafael Correa, accepted her defeat and promised her support for the new President.
“Today we have made history. Ecuadorian families chose the new Ecuador; they chose a country with security and employment,” Mr. Noboa said in a message on X.
The newly elected President announced that electoral promises would not just remain in the campaign and added that corruption would be punished.
Ms. Arianna Tanca, an Ecuadorian political analyst, commented that the stakes were high and urged the former congressman to think about the “future of the country and not preserve his square metre of power”.
Mr. Noboa is due to be sworn in on November 25 but will only govern for 17 months until 2025, completing the term of outgoing president Mr. Guillermo Lasso. Mr. Lasso dissolved Congress in May during an impeachment trial and called for snap presidential elections.
“It’s a short time, but it is time that is precious and can be used for good, so let’s see if the politicians are up to the bar,” Ms. Tanca noted.
The presidential campaign has been marked by unprecedented violence, including the assassination of anti-corruption candidate Mr. Fernando Villavicencio as he left a campaign event in August. This month, seven Colombian suspects in the assassination were themselves murdered in prison.
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