Ecuador will designate on Sunday ruler to lead until May 2025
Susana Madera
Quito, Oct 14 (EFE).- More than 13.4 million Ecuadorians are summoned this Sunday to the polls to choose between the young businessman Daniel Noboa and the lawyer Luisa Gonzalez, who will complete the term of office of President Guillermo Lasso until May 2025.
This Sunday’s voting day will begin at 07:00 local time (12:00 GMT) and last ten hours until 17:00 (22:00 GMT). The first results are expected to be known about 90 minutes after the polls close.
The process began last Thursday with the prisoners’ vote without a final sentence. It continued on Friday with the vote at home for those over 50 years old or people with a disability of more than 75%.
Ecuadorians go to the polls after last May Lasso dissolved the National Assembly, of opposition majority, when he was about to vote a motion of censure against him for alleged embezzlement (embezzlement), which he denies, and requested the call for elections, under the constitutional remedy known as “cross death.”
Noboa and Gonzalez went to the ballot last August 20 after beating six other candidates: former vice-president Otto Sonnenholzner and former legislator, businessman, and security specialist Jan Topic.
Also, the former prefect of the province of Azuay Yaku Pérez, the businessman Xavier Hervas, the independent lawyer Bolívar Armijos, and the journalist Christian Zurita, who replaced Fernando Villavicencio on the ballot, killed on August 9 as he was leaving a political rally in Quito.
Insecurity Wearing bulletproof vests and with the protection of law enforcement, Noboa of the National Democratic Action (ADN) alliance and Gonzalez of the Citizen Revolution movement, led by former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), developed a second round campaign characterized by meetings with unions, social groups and
delegates from international organizations.
There were few mass meetings compared to electoral campaigns of past years in Ecuador.
In their proselytism, both candidates focused on informing, especially about their government plans to fight insecurity, one of the main concerns of Ecuadorians.
Ecuador is experiencing unprecedented levels of insecurity and violence, attributed by authorities to organized crime and drug trafficking, which caused the country to go from 5.8 to 25.32 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in just five years in 2022, the highest figure in its history.
Murders at the hands of hired killers, assaults, extortion, kidnappings, robberies, and assaults are among the crimes heard of daily in Ecuador.
The country was known as a stronghold of peace in the region. However, it has become a key point for drug trafficking mafias to smuggle large quantities of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest producers, to Europe and North America through its ports.
Economic Situation In addition to the insecurity crisis, the next president will face a difficult economic situation with an indebted country, with severe problems in the health, education, and agricultural sectors, among others, which could be worsened by the effects of the El Niño climate phenomenon, which is expected to worsen in the coming months.
In addition, the next head of state will have to govern with the foreseeable reduction of fiscal revenues due to the prohibition of exploiting an essential oil well in the Amazon.
This is because last August 20, Ecuadorians voted in a referendum to cease the exploitation of Block 43-ITT, one of the oilfields located within the Yasuní National Park, a biodiverse enclave in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
This block has an average production of 58,000 barrels of oil daily, about 11% of Ecuador’s total oil production of around 480,000 barrels.
According to official data, this gave the State profits of 1.2 billion dollars. Still, environmentalists believe that the income is much lower and can be compensated with a wealth tax. EFE
A center-right businessman and a leftist candidate are vying for the presidency on Sunday at a moment when the country is facing growing insecurity fueled by international criminal groups.
By Genevieve Glatsky
Oct. 15, 2023
One candidate seeking to become Ecuador’s president is Daniel Noboa, a center-right scion of a banana empire who was lifted to a surprising second-place finish in a runoff in August by an electorate hungry for change in a country suffering from violence and an ailing economy.
Mr. Noboa is facing Luisa González, a leftist establishment candidate who, in trying to become the first woman elected the country’s president, is promising voters a return to a period when violence was low and the price of oil, a key industry, was high.
At stake in Sunday’s election is the future of this Latin American nation of more than 17 million, a once tranquil haven that has been upended by international criminal groups that have turned Ecuador into a key player in the global drug trade.
Working with local gangs, the global cartels have unleashed a surge of violence that has sent tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans fleeing to the U.S.-Mexico border, part of a migration wave that has overwhelmed the Biden administration.
Like much of the rest of Latin America, Ecuador was dealt a major financial blow by the coronavirus pandemic and many workers struggle to make enough money provide for their families.
Here’s what you need to know about the vote.
What makes this election different from others?
The outgoing president, Guillermo Lasso, called for early elections in May as he faced impeachment proceedings against him stemming from accusations of embezzlement. Mr. Lasso had also grown increasingly unpopular with voters angry over the government’s inability to address the spiraling violence.
The assassination of a presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, as he left a campaign event in August was a traumatic jolt for a nation that heads to the polls during what has been perhaps the most violent electoral season in its history.
Beside Mr. Villavicencio — who was outspoken about what he claimed were links between organized crime and the government — five other politicians have been killed this year. Last week, seven men accused of killing Mr. Villavicencio were found dead in prison.
Whoever wins will hold the presidency for only about a year and a half. Mr. Noboa has had a consistent lead in multiple polls since August, though it has narrowed slightly in recent days and some surveys show him neck and neck with Ms. González.
What is at stake in this election?
Ecuador was once a peaceful nation compared with its neighbors, particularly Colombia, which for decades was torn by violence among armed guerrilla units, paramilitary groups and drug cartels.
That all changed in recent years as Colombia forged a peace deal with the country’s largest leftist guerrilla group, and Ecuador became dominated by an increasingly powerful narco-trafficking industry that includes Mexican cartels and Albanian gangs.
Through its ports on the Pacific Coast, Ecuador has become a major transshipment point for cocaine that is smuggled to Europe. International groups have joined forces with prison-based gangs in a brutal competition for the lucrative drug industry.
News reports regularly feature beheadings, car bombings, police assassinations, young men hanging from bridges and children gunned down outside their homes or schools.
Who is Luisa González?
Ms. González, 45, is the handpicked candidate of former President Rafael Correa, who led the country from 2007 to 2017. She held several positions in his government before being elected to congress in 2021, a position she held until the legislature was dissolved by Mr. Lasso in May.
Her campaign has sought to appeal to voter nostalgia for the low homicide rates and commodities boom that lifted millions out of poverty during Mr. Correa’s administration. Ms. González’s campaign slogan in the first round was “we already did it and we will do it again.”
But Ms. González’s close association with the former president also carries risks. Mr. Correa’s authoritarian style and accusations of corruption deeply divided the country. He is living in exile in Belgium, fleeing a prison sentence for campaign finance violations, and many Ecuadoreans fear that a González presidency would pave the way for him to return and run for office again.
Ms. González has pledged to tap central bank reserves to stimulate the economy and increase financing for the public health care system and public universities.
“We know she is with the people, not with the rich, and that is why she is going to improve things,” said Oswaldo Proaño, 40, a street vendor in Quito, the capital, who spoke amid shouts and whistles at a recent campaign rally for Ms. González.
“With Luisa we will have security, as we had in the time of Rafael Correa,” said Luisa María Manteca, 65, who works at a cosmetics distributor in Quito. “With him, the country ran smoothly and we have to continue on that path.”
The possibility that Ms. González could become the first woman to win Ecuador’s presidency also appeals to many voters.
“She is a very humble person,’’ said Debora Espinosa, 19, a university student. “As a woman she understands us.”
Who is Daniel Noboa?
Mr. Noboa, 35, comes from one of the richest families in Latin America, known to most Ecuadoreans for its banana empire, which features one of the world’s best known fruit brands, Bonita bananas.
But the Noboa family’s vast holdings are varied and include fertilizers, plastics, cardboard and the country’s largest container storage facility.
Mr. Noboa’s father ran unsuccessfully for president five times, though the younger Noboa’s political career goes back only to 2021, when he was elected to Ecuador’s Congress.
He has positioned himself as “the employment president,” even including a work application form on his website, and has pledged to attract international investment and trade and cut taxes.
But like his father, Mr. Noboa has also drawn criticism from analysts who fear he could use the presidency to advance the family’s sprawling business empire.
At a recent campaign event, hundreds of university students lined up in the coastal city of Guayaquil, the country’s most populous city and an epicenter of the violence, waiting for more than an hour to see Mr. Noboa.
Taking off his bullet-resistant vest, he slowly and calmly answered the students’ questions, repeating his talking points about making Ecuador an attractive market for international banking. He was met with applause, cheers and teenagers running to snap selfies with him.
“I have been watching his interviews and I like his proposals on issues such as dollarization, education and work,” said Dereck Delgado, 17, an electrical engineering student, who plans to vote for Mr. Noboa. (The voting age in Ecuador is 16 and votingis mandatory for those 18 and older).
Many voters are also drawn to him because he represents an alternative to Mr. Correa’s party. Valeria Vásquez, 33, who manages a local beauty product company in Guayaquil, said she liked that Mr. Noboa is “not a socialist.”
Another Noboa supporter, Natasha Villegas, 19, a university student in Guayaquil, said she believed it was “time to give the opportunity to a young person.’’
What are the candidates saying about security?
Mr. Noboa and Ms. González have vowed to rein in the violence, though neither has made security a central part of their campaigns.
Both candidates have talked about providing more money for the police and deploying the military to secure ports used to smuggle drugs out of the country and prisons, which are controlled by violent gangs.
Ms. González has pointed to the arrests of several leaders of criminal gangs when she served in the Correa administration as evidence of her intention to apply a firm hand.
Mr. Noboa has proposed the use of technology, like drones and satellite tracking systems, to stem drug trafficking, and has suggested building prison boats to isolate the most violent inmates.
But analysts say the two candidates have not done enough to prioritize combating the crime that has destabilized Ecuador and turned it into one of Latin America’s most violent countries.
Thalíe Ponce contributed reporting from Guayaquil; Emilia Paz y Miño and José María León Cabrera contributed from Quito.
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