Daniel Noboa, an inexperienced politician and heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, has won Ecuador’s presidential runoff election.
With about 96% of the votes counted from Sunday’s ballot, electoral officials said Mr Noboa had 52.2% of the votes, compared to 47.8% for Luisa Gonzalez, a leftist lawyer and ally of exiled former president Rafael Correa.
She conceded defeat during a speech to supporters on Sunday night and said she planned to call Mr Noboa to congratulate him.
Mr Noboa, 35, will lead Ecuador during a period marked by unprecedented violence that even claimed the life of a presidential candidate.
The nationwide uneasiness began when violence erupted about three years ago, but it reached an unthinkable level when Fernando Villavicencio was killed in August as he left a campaign rally.
The new president’s political career began in 2021 when he earned a seat in the National Assembly and chaired its Economic Development Commission.
The US-educated businessman opened an event organising company when he was 18 and then joined his father’s Noboa Corp, where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas.
His father, Alvaro Noboa who unsuccessfully ran for president five times, is the richest man in Ecuador thanks to a conglomerate which started in the growing and shipping of bananas — the country’s main crop — and includes more than 128 companies in dozens of countries.
The new president’s term will run until May 2025, which is what remains of the tenure of president Guillermo Lasso, who cut his term short when he dissolved the country’s National Assembly in May as politicians carried out impeachment proceedings against him over alleged improprieties in a contract by a state-owned company.
The conservative former banker clashed constantly with politicians after his election in 2021 and decided not to run in the special election.
On Sunday, he called on Ecuadorians to have a peaceful election and think about what is “best for their children, their parents and the country”.
During his time in power, violent deaths reached 4,600 in 2022 – the country’s highest in history and double the total in 2021. The National Police recorded 3,568 violent deaths in the first half of 2023.
A large group of military and police officers as well as private security guards protected Mr Noboa when he voted in Olon, a community on the country’s central Pacific coast, wearing a bulletproof vest.
“I believe that the trend is irreversible, and today, we begin to build a new Ecuador,” he said.
The National Police commander, General Cesar Zapata, said authorities had investigated two reports of explosive devices outside the capital Quito on Sunday which they deemed to be false. He also said 174 people had been arrested for violating a ban on alcohol sales on election day.
