“Now we begin to work for a new Ecuador”
Luisa Gonzales, former president Rafael Correa’s candidate, accepted her defeat. Lasso congratulates Noboa and invites him to an immediate transition.
HAVANA TIMES – Businessman Daniel Noboa was proclaimed the winner of Sunday’s runoff presidential elections in Ecuador by defeating Luisa Gonzalez, the choice of former president Rafael Correa. Noboa, 35, thus became the youngest president-elect in the history of Ecuador.
Noboa said that he closes a chapter as a candidate and that tomorrow he starts working for a “new Ecuador.” “From tomorrow, hope begins to work; from tomorrow, Daniel Noboa begins to work, as the new president,” he said after receiving the results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
With 99.28% of votes counted, Noboa received 51.83% of the votes against Gonzalez’s 48.17, reports the National Electoral Council (CNE) on its website.
Noboa will succeed conservative Guillermo Lasso, who cut short his mandate (2021-2025) after invoking last May the so-called “crossed death,” a constitutional figure that allowed him to dissolve the National Assembly, with an opposition majority, and call for special elections.
Lasso used this mechanism just when the legislative was about to vote an impeachment motion against him, in the framework of a political trial of censure in which he was accused of embezzlement (malfeasance), a charge he rejected.
Who is Daniel Noboa?
Daniel Noboa is the son of banana magnate Alvaro Noboa and will complete Lasso’s term until May 2025, when he could run for re-election for a new four-year term.
The heir of the Noboa emporium, however, he will face the challenge of achieving an environment of governability because “correismo” (Correa’s movement) will again be the leading political force in the next legislature, although it will not have the absolute majority of votes in the plenary of the Assembly.
Born on November 30, 1987, Noboa won the presidency in a runoff. His father, Alvaro Noboa, one of the wealthiest people in the country thanks to his banana emporium, ran unsuccessfully five times.
Noboa reaches the presidency after a brief political career. He was a legislator between 2021 and 2023, and from there, he launched his presidential run. He did not start as a favorite but played the role of “outsider.” He was seen as a new face in politics, and his performance in the electoral debate in the first round catapulted him to the runoff elections.
As a legislator, he was the president of the Economic Development Commission and the object of criticism for having led the organization, amid the war between Russia and Ukraine, of the trip —paid a