The young businessman Daniel Noboa took a significant advantage this morning (Spanish time) in the scrutiny of the second round of the presidential elections in Ecuador against the runner-up Luisa González.
With 61% of votes counted, the candidate of the National Democratic Action alliance (ADN) obtained 52.4% of the votes compared to 47.6% for the candidate of the Citizen Revolution, the political movement led by former president Rafael Correa. , in a faster count than expected and announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Noboa, heir to one of the richest families in Ecuador and son of the banana sector magnate Álvaro Noboa, a five-time presidential candidate, followed the count at one of his properties in the resort of Olón, in the coastal province of Santa Elena, where He went to vote earlier. González, for his part, was following the election night with the main leaders of the Citizen Revolution in Quito, after having voted in Canuto, a rural town in the coastal province of Manabí where he grew up.
This vote was attended by 88.33% of the more than 13.4 million Ecuadorians who were called to the polls to choose the successor of the current president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, and complete the 2021-2025 period, which the ruler did not. will culminate.
Lasso chose to leave office early and force this extraordinary electoral process by dissolving the National Assembly, controlled by the opposition led by Correismo, when it was preparing to vote on his dismissal as the final step of a political trial in which he was accused of alleged embezzlement, a charge he denies.
In this way, the winner of these elections will lead the Government of Ecuador for only about 15 months, since it is estimated that he will assume command in December and will hold it until May 2025, with the possibility of being re-elected in this year's elections, where will recover the country's ordinary electoral calendar.
The future president will take office in a country mired in a deep crisis of insecurity and the wave of violence of organized crime in which the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio took place, shot to death at the exit of a rally eleven days before the first round, held August 20.
Added to this is a delicate economic situation, with a growing deficit due to lower profits from oil exports, one of the main pillars of the Ecuadorian economy.
