Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence.
With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez.
Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round.
Photo: AFP
Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.”
“A huge hug to all those Ecuadorans who always believed in this young president,” he said. “Ecuadorans have spoken, from tomorrow morning we will go to work.”
Gonzalez — seemingly shocked by her weak showing and perhaps the end of her dream of becoming Ecuador’s first female president — immediately questioned the results.
She accused Noboa of “the most grotesque electoral fraud” and called for a recount of the ballots.
“I refuse to believe that the people prefer lies over the truth,” she said.
She did not immediately provide evidence for her claims of fraud.
The campaign was dominated by worries about the lackluster economy and cartel violence that has transformed Ecuador from one of the safest nations in Latin America into the most deadly.
Noboa, the guitar-strumming son of a billionaire banana magnate, has staked his political fortunes on tough security policies designed to snuff out the gangs. He has deployed the military to the streets, captured drug capos and invited the US to send special forces.
On the eve of the ballot, Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency in the capital, Quito, and several provinces, underscoring the tense state of affairs. The once-peaceful nation averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels vied for control over cocaine routes that pass through Ecuador’s ports.
Rampant bloodshed has spooked investors and tourists alike, fueling economic malaise and swelling the ranks of Ecuador’s poor to 28 percent of the population.
In the volcano-ringed capital, voters wrapped up against the Andean chill and flocked to the polling stations.
“I think Ecuador is divided, but I think we all understand we’re in a situation where we have to unite, whoever is leading the government,” 21-year-old architecture student Camila Medina said.
In total, about 13.7 million Ecuadorans were obliged to vote.
Noboa’s win is likely to see him double down on hardline security policies and further nurture a budding bromance with US President Donald Trump.
“These next four years, I hope everything goes well,” 26-year-old Noboa supporter Natalie Ulloa said. “I hope he manages to better implement what he has been proposing from the beginning.”
Analysts said that Gonzalez’s close ties to populist firebrand former Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa might have hurt her at the polls.
Correa now lives in exile in Belgium, avoiding a corruption conviction he claims is politically motivated, but he remains a deeply polarizing figure in his homeland.
“There is a strong anti-Correa sentiment” among some voters, said Ruth Hidalgo, a political scientist at the University of the Americas.
Gonzalez and her party “didn’t manage to overcome that, they didn’t manage to convince people, they didn’t connect, so this is the result,” she said.
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is leaning into his banking background as his country fights a trade war with the US, but his financial ties have also made him a target for conspiracy theories. Incorporating tropes familiar to followers of the far-right QAnon movement, conspiratorial social media posts about the Liberal leader have surged ahead of the country’s April 28 election. Posts range from false claims he recited a “satanic chant” at a campaign event to artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images of him in a pool with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “He’s the ideal person to be targeted here, for sure, due to
DISPUTE: Beijing seeks global support against Trump’s tariffs, but many governments remain hesitant to align, including India, ASEAN countries and Australia China is reaching out to other nations as the US layers on more tariffs, in what appears to be an attempt by Beijing to form a united front to compel Washington to retreat. Days into the effort, it is meeting only partial success from countries unwilling to ally with the main target of US President Donald Trump’s trade war. Facing the cratering of global markets, Trump on Wednesday backed off his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, saying countries were lining up to negotiate more favorable conditions. China has refused to seek talks, saying the US was insincere and that it
RSS