With 92.6% of the ballot boxes, noboa obtained 55.7% of the votes, against 44.3% of Luisa González; Rival does not admit defeat
The president of , it was reelected on Sunday (13) by beating the left candidate Luisa González, who did not recognize the defeat in the second round of the presidential election, in a polarized country and shaken by the violence of drug trafficking. With 92.6% of the ballot boxes, noboa has 55.7% of the votes, against 44.3% of González, according to data from the National Electoral Council (CNE). On the streets, the president’s voters celebrated the result.
“It seems unfortunate that with 11, 12 points of difference if trying, somehow, to question the will of Ecuadorians,” said the 37 -year -old president in the city of Olón. “I deny me to believe that there is a people who prefer the lie to the truth,” said González, 47. “We will ask for the recount and to open the ballot boxes … It is the most grotesque electoral fraud,” added former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
In the capital Quito, weather was party. “We will be better equipped to face … The mafia and absolutely all the bad country has,” AFP Natalie Ulloa, 26 -year -old administrator. Fear and tension marked elections in the country of 18 million inhabitants, where every hour a person is murdered, according to official data.
Polarization, deepened by misinformation, caused clashes between candidates and fraud warnings. “This victory was historical … There is no doubt of who is the winner,” said Noboa, a millionaire businessman and one of the youngest rulers in the world. Almost 84% of 13.7 million voters attended the polls in a country where the vote is mandatory, according to the CNE.
Fraud?
Noboa denounced irregularities in the investigation of the first round, but international observers ruled out the possibility. In the second round, it was González’s turn to accuse the government of “desperate actions” to manipulate voting minutes. “We must firmly reject the narrative of fraud, the accusations without evidence … They undermine confidence in democracy,” said Diana Atamaint, president of the CNE.
Sunday’s results represent the worst defeat of Correa’s forces since he left power. “There is a strong anticorreism that (its party) the citizen revolution cannot overcome (…) and then that’s the result,” explains Ruth Hidalgo, a political scientist at the University of the Americas.
On the eve of the second round, the government declared 60 days of state of partial exception and ordered a nightclub touch in the regions most affected by violence. “It’s a violation of our rights,” complained González, who aspired to become the first elected president of the country.
The war between cartels caused the murder of a presidential candidate in 2023, gang prison overwhelming and armed attack on a television channel during a live broadcast. All in a indebted economy and suffocated by the cost of struggle against drug trafficking. Ecuadorians also voted under pressure from poverty (28%) and unemployment and underemployment (23%).
Ally two United States
Very active on social networks, noboa explores his young image, man with tattoos, athletic and amateur musician. It also uses the image of relentless politician ahead of large military operations using bulletproof vest. Noboa was born in the United States, he is heir to a banana industry tycoon and adopts a neoliberal economic policy.
Although very popular, human rights organisms report that their security plan includes abuse. The murder of four minors in Guayaquil involved 16 military personnel and shook the government. The president claims the reduction of the 47 record homicide rate for every 100,000 people in 2023 to 38 for every 100,000 in 2024. Despite the fall, the index continues to be the highest in Latin America, according to Insight Crime.
Noboa is one of the largest allies in the United States in the region, has called on military help from President Donald Trump and does not rule out the presence of foreign military bases in the country. The president will complete in May the mandate of Guillermo Lasso, who dissolved the Congress and summoned early elections to avoid judgment for corruption. With noboa “everything remains the same, the country follows in pieces,” said Jair Esmeraldas, a 24 -year -old student.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Victor Oliveira
