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.
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
The Chinese public maintains relatively warm sentiments toward Taiwan and strongly prefers non-military paths to improving cross-strait relations, a recent survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University showed. The “China Pulse” research project, which polled 2,506 adults between Oct. 27 last year and Jan. 1 this year, found that 86 percent of respondents support strengthening cultural ties, while 81 percent favor deepening economic interaction. The report, co-authored by political scientists at Emory University and advisors at the Carter Center, indicates that the Chinese public views Taiwan’s importance through a lens of shared history and culture rather than geopolitical
RSS