Updated: 12:15pm (AEDT)
Quito/Guayaquil, Ecuador
Reuters
Ecuadorean presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez on Sunday conceded the presidential election to her rival, business heir Daniel Noboa, congratulating him on his victory.
Noboa was tallying more than 52 per cent of the vote, while Gonzalez had about 48 per cent, with nearly 90 per cemt of ballot boxes counted.
Ecuadorian presidential candidate Daniel Noboa reacts during the presidential election, in Santa Elena, Ecuador, on 15th October, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Santiago Arcos
Noboa had campaigned on promises to improve the economy and create jobs for young people and has also pledged to house dangerous criminals on prison ships.
His victory fulfills a long-held family ambition – he grew up accompanying his banana baron father Alvaro during the latter’s multiple failed attempts to become president.
It also marks a rebuke by voters of his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez’s mentor, former President Rafael Correa, who has continued to wield considerable political power since he left office, despite a corruption conviction.
Gonzalez had pledged to bring back many of Correa’s social programs, boost the economy with international reserves and fight crime.
Voters’ top concerns largely centred on the economy, which has struggled since the coronavirus pandemic and motivated many thousands of Ecuadoreans to migrate, and rising crime, including increases in murders, robberies and prison riots.
The violence, which the outgoing government blames on drug gangs, reached a crescendo during the campaign with the murder of anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead while leaving a Quito campaign event in August.
Noboa made a special point to woo young people, as did Gonzalez, with events at universities toward the end of the campaign. About a quarter of the 13 million Ecuadoreans obliged to vote are between the ages of 18 and 29.
– Additional reporting by TITO CORREA in Canuto and RODRIGO CAMPOS in New York, US
