Ecuadorian voters re-elect incumbent president Daniel Noboa
His opponent, leftist lawyer Luisa Gonzalez, vowed to seek a recount over what she described as ‘grotesque’ electoral fraud.
Ecuador has re-elected president Daniel Noboa, a conservative millionaire with a divisive no-holds-barred crime-fighting record.
His opponent, leftist lawyer Luisa Gonzalez, vowed to seek a recount over what she described as “grotesque” electoral fraud.
Figures released by Ecuador’s National Electoral Council show Mr Noboa received 55.8% of the vote with more than 90% of ballots counted, while Ms Gonzalez earned 44%.
Ecuador’s top electoral authority, Diana Atamaint, on national television, said those results showed an “irreversible trend” in favour of Mr Noboa.
The win gives Mr Noboa four years to fulfill the promises he first made in 2023, when he stunned voters by winning a snap election and a 16-month presidency despite his limited political experience.
More than 13 million people were eligible to vote in the South American country, where voting is mandatory.
Ms Gonzalez’s defeat marks the third consecutive time that the party of Rafael Correa, the country’s most influential president this century, failed to return to the presidency.
Mr Noboa, heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, is expected to continue applying some of his no-holds-barred crimefighting strategies that part of the electorate finds appealing but which have tested the limits of laws and norms of governing.
Ms Gonzalez on Sunday told supporters her campaign “does not recognise the results presented by the “(National Electoral Council),” arguing, among other issues, that pre-election polls showed her ahead of Mr Noboa.
The candidates advanced to Sunday’s contest after getting the most votes in February’s first-round election.
Mr Noboa led Ms Gonzalez by about 17,000 votes.
Voters were primarily worried about the violence that transformed the country, starting in 2021, a spike in crime tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru.
Both candidates promised tough-on-crime policies, better equipment for law enforcement and international help to fight drug cartels and local criminal groups.
