Businessman Daniel Noboa changes Ecuador’s politics: he will be the youngest president of the country after defeating Correísta lawyer Luisa González

Noboa won this Sunday’s elections with 52.1% of the votes, ahead of Luisa González’s 47.9%, who conceded defeat once the trend was already irreversible.

The data “we consider irreversible and Ecuador virtually has Daniel Noboa Azín as president,” said the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint.

“This was an improbable political project whose purpose was to restore a smile and peace to a country,” said Noboa when celebrating the victory.

“Tomorrow we begin to work for a new Ecuador, to rebuild a country hit by violence, corruption, and hatred,” he added in a short speech.

“Starting tomorrow, Daniel Noboa, your new president of the Republic, starts working.”

Noboa, of the National Democratic Action party, is the son of banana magnate Álvaro Noboa , who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency up to five times.

His son did it the first time, but his presidency will be brief.

Outgoing President Guillermo Lasso called early elections in May to avoid impeachment on charges that he ignored warnings of misappropriation of funds in a state-owned company contract, charges he denies.

Therefore, Noboa will only govern until May 2025. That year, elections will be held again.

The president-elect thanked González, who extended his hand to reach agreements and take the measures that the country, deeply affected by violence, needs.

“To those who did not vote for us, congratulations, because the candidate you chose has won and, as Ecuadorians, we also embrace them,” said González, who, however, asked him to fulfill his promises to students, young people and the elderly. .

Violence, which the outgoing government of President Lasso attributes to drug trafficking gangs, is the most pressing problem for the country.

It reached a climax during the campaign with the assassination of anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito before the first round in August.

For this reason, Noboa and González campaigned and went to vote this Sunday wearing bulletproof vests.

On security, Noboa said during the campaign that the most dangerous convicts should be held on prison ships and that he will use technology to combat crime.

He also wants to criminalize small-scale drug use, create a jury system for serious crimes and invest in technology, such as drones and radars, to attack organized crime on the border, the focus of drug trafficking.

Ambitious proposals for a president who will have just over a year to execute them.

In addition, it must seek agreements with a fragmented National Assembly where it has only 12 of 136 assembly members.

The leftist party of González and former president Rafael Correa , Revolución Ciudadana has 50 seats, the largest number in the assembly although far from the half that would give it veto power.

Therefore, Noboa will require alliances to govern and fulfill his promises if he wants to be re-elected president in 2025, a desire that he has already expressed.

From surprise to president

Before the first round, few were betting on Noboa, whose father has become a source of humorous memes due to the number of times he had failed in his attempt to be president, something that his son now achieves on the first try.

Among a very large group of candidates, Noboa did not attract attention until the presidential debate, where he exploited his image as a young man who wants to reform politics and move Ecuador away from the Correism-anti-Correism axis marked by former President Correa (2007-2017), main supporter of González, whom Noboa defeated this Sunday.

With a stance focused on avoiding polarization, the businessman, who only began his political career in 2021 as an assembly member, convinced in the debate and surprised by entering the runoff, only behind González.

Looking ahead to the second round and without fighting Correismo head-on, he managed to unite the anti-Correista vote of other candidates defeated in the first round and prevail over González with a position that he defines as center-left.

Some critics and analysts claim, however, that it is above all political marketing to distance himself from the more traditional right embodied by his father and the outgoing president Guillermo Lasso, who leaves office with a low popularity rating.

A blow to Correismo and a generational change

Noboa’s victory represents a punishment by voters for González’s mentor, former President Correa, who has continued to wield considerable political power since leaving office, despite a corruption conviction for which he remains in Belgium, in the exile.

González had promised to recover many of Correa’s social programs, whom he was going to make his main political advisor.

It is the second election in which the Correismo candidate wins in the first round, but loses in the second, so anti-Correismo is beginning to emerge as a possible political force in itself.

Or it could simply be that the large young electorate this time preferred to put an end to the quarrels in Ecuadorian politics in recent years and that is why they opted for a candidate who says he wants to break the left-right axis, despite having chosen Verónica Abad as vice president . , conservative in social policies and supporter of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro .

What seems clear is that his youth and his conciliatory speech surely worked in favor of Noboa, who is blamed for lack of experience. He replaces Lasso, who is 67 years old.

“We needed new blood and not that old policy that hurt us so much,” university student in Guayaquil, Eduardo Chávez, 23, told Reuters.