Daniel Noboa was elected in the second electoral round, after a very short and little-known political career as an assembly member.
Daniel Noboa, the candidate of the ADN alliance, was the winner of the second electoral round on October 15, 2023 and thus becomes the youngest president Ecuador has ever had. At 35 years old and with a short political career, Noboa will govern for a year and a half, and according to what he has announced, he will do so with a view to re-election in 2025.
Daniel Noboa was born on November 30, 1987, meaning that, at the time of the second round of elections, he was a month and a half shy of his 36th birthday.
His first steps in politics, before being a candidate for the Presidency, were in the Assembly. He was a legislator for the province of Santa Elena between 2017 and May 2023, when President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the Assembly.
That is, he has a short career in politics, but for this same reason he has been kept away from scandals and controversies. In fact, his time in the Assembly was low profile.
However, he reaches the Presidency without the support of a political party of his own or in which he is even a member. The ADN alliance, which supported his candidacy, is made up of the recently created PID movement, of the cousin of former president Lenín Moreno, and the Mover movement, a retread of the defunct PAIS Alliance.
Therefore, Daniel Noboa’s challenge will be this year and a half of government that lies ahead. Although he managed to convince the electorate , precisely because of his youth and his separation from traditional politics, he now faces the reality of governing.
The youngest president
Citizens who are at least 35 years old on the date of inauguration can be candidates for the Presidency, as established in the Constitution.
Therefore, the result for Noboa is historic, since it is right on that limit and, above all, if one considers that the average age at which Ecuadorian presidents have been elected is 55 years .
He will be the second president to reach that position under 40 years old. Jaime Roldós, who took office with the return to democracy in 1979, was 39 when he took office.
Furthermore, Ecuador has had four presidents who were between 40 and 50 years old: Osvaldo Hurtado, Rafael Correa, Abdalá Bucaram and Jamil Mahuad.
At the other extreme, there is Sixto Durán Ballén, who came to power in 1992 at the age of 71.
A far from average candidate
Since the return to democracy, Ecuador has had 11 elections. In them, the majority of candidates who have presented themselves have been over 45 years old .
According to figures from the National Electoral Council (CNE), presidential candidates have been on average 51 years old. In fact, the average age of applicants from 1978 to 2017 has never dropped below 48 years.
And even, over time, it has been increasing, so much so that since 2002 this average has not dropped below 52 years.
The youngest presidential candidate Ecuador has ever had was Iván Espinel, who was 34 years old on the date of registration of his candidacy for the 2017 elections. While former assemblyman Dalo Bucaram, who was also a candidate in 2017, was 35 years old.
But none of them achieved victory. Both obtained less than 5% in those elections.
In total, there have been 11 presidential candidates under 40 in the last 45 years of elections, not counting the 2023 elections.
