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Daniel Noboa has won Ecuador’s presidential election as the South American country battles an unprecedented crime wave and an ailing economy.
Noboa, a centre-right former lawmaker, beat leftist rival Luisa González in a run-off election on Sunday, having 52 per cent of the vote with 93 per cent counted.
“Tomorrow your new president of the republic will get to work,” Noboa, who will take office in December, told supporters on Sunday night.
Noboa campaigned on a market-friendly platform of youth employment and promoting foreign investment.
The 35-year-old served a short stint as a lawmaker, from 2021 until May this year, and chaired the economic development commission in Congress. Before that he held management roles at Noboa Corp., the family business.
His father is Álvaro Noboa, one of Ecuador’s richest men and once a serial candidate for president himself. The family company was a major producer of bananas, among other exports.
The snap election was triggered when President Guillermo Lasso dissolved Congress in May using a “mutual death” constitutional clause. The self-made banking millionaire faced impeachment proceedings in the opposition-controlled congress. He did not stand for re-election.
Noboa will complete the final 15 months of Lasso’s term, leaving little time to advance policy goals.
González had campaigned on a platform of social spending similar to that of her mentor Rafael Correa, whose tenure from 2007-17 coincided with a commodities boom, heavy public spending and a reduction in poverty, while his government took about $18bn of loans from Chinese banks.
Her loss represents a major blow for Correa, who wields influence in Ecuador despite living in exile in Belgium to avoid the consequences of a corruption conviction relating to his presidency.
Security was voters’ main concern in an election campaign marred by violence. Anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated in August ahead of the first round of voting.
Fuelled by drug-related crime, the country’s homicide rate has quadrupled between 2018 and last year, when 4,800 people were murdered. In the first six months of this year, 3,500 homicides were reported in the country of 18mn people.
Noboa has promised a tough line on organised crime, including jailing criminals on prison ships.
The incoming president will face economic headwinds. The country is managing a widening fiscal deficit, lower energy revenues and higher interest on debt repayments.
Ecuador’s economy, which is reliant on exports of oil and seafood, is forecast to grow 1.5 per cent this year and 0.8 per cent in 2024.
Noboa has promised to promote foreign investment and jobs for young people with tax benefits to employers.
“One of the main drivers of this election was a general frustration with the status quo,” said Sebastián Hurtado, who runs Profitas, a Quito-based political risk consultancy. “Noboa — a fresh, young face — managed to get that vote.”
Additional reporting by Carla Valdiviezo in Quito
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