Daniel Noboa is the new president of Ecuador. He will govern for just 17 months and will have to manage an unstable country afflicted by a historic record number of homicides.
With more than 52 per cent of the vote, 35-year-old Daniel Noboa, leader of Acción Democrática Nacional, a centre-right political group, won the presidential election run-off in Ecuador, defeating Luisa González, who had come first in the first round.
Daniel Noboa thus becomes the youngest president in Ecuador's history, and now faces the challenge of governing an unstable country for 17 months before new elections are held: Noboa will complete the term of outgoing president Guillermo Lasso, who dissolved the government in May to avoid an impeachment process. The new head of state has little time, then, but the challenges are plentiful.
Noboa obtained 52.29 per cent of the vote against González's 47.71 per cent, according to Ecuador's electoral council (which on Sunday evening had counted 90 per cent of the ballots). Luisa González, the candidate chosen by former president Rafael Correa, accepted defeat and pledged her support to the new president.
Daniel Noboa is the son of Álvaro Noboa, Ecuador's wealthiest man and a five-time presidential candidate. He has been a surprise from the moment he announced his candidacy: the Guardian says that "his calm, non-confrontational style" made him popular especially among voters aged between 18 and 29, who make up a third of the electorate.
A graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School (Massachusetts, United States), Noboa focused his electoral campaign on three points: a tough line on crime, boosting youth employment and foreign investment. Security was the theme that featured most prominently in the new president's speeches. "Today we made history," Noboa said in a post on X. "Ecuadorian families chose the new Ecuador, they chose a safe country with more employment." Noboa has proposed confining the most violent criminals on ships off Ecuador's Pacific coast and has suggested reinforcing the military presence at borders and along the coastline, both of which are cocaine-trafficking hotspots.
These latest elections in Ecuador took place in a climate steeped in violence and drug-trafficking-related crime. Two factors that have turned Ecuador into one of the most dangerous countries in South America, with a homicide rate higher than that of Mexico. According to the Ecuadorian Observatory on Organised Crime, the homicide rate has quintupled since 2019 due to violence between local gangs allied with Mexican drug cartels, Colombian guerrilla groups and Balkan traffickers.
Ecuador's ports are targeted by drug traffickers who smuggle cocaine in banana containers, the country's main export. Around 80 per cent of the cocaine smuggled from Ecuador is destined for Europe, where a kilogram of the drug sells for around $50,000 — twice the price compared to the United States, according to the British outlet the Guardian.
The presidential campaign was thus marked by unprecedented violence, including the assassination in broad daylight of anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio as he was returning from a campaign event in August. This month, seven Colombians suspected of Villavicencio's murder were themselves killed while in prison.
Noboa will be sworn in on 25 November, but will govern for only 17 months, until 2025, completing the term of outgoing president Guillermo Lasso, who dissolved congress in May during an impeachment process and called early presidential and legislative elections.
It is little time, but it is precious time and it can be put to good use: that is the hope circulating among Ecuadorian citizens. The start, however, is not especially promising: the president-elect will not have a parliamentary majority and may struggle to find consensus to push legislation through Ecuador's fractious political class.
