Olón, Ecuador, Oct 15 (EFE).- Ecuador’s new president Daniel Noboa, the youngest in the country’s history, said Sunday night that he was ready to get working for a “new Ecuador.”
“From tomorrow hope begins to work, from tomorrow Daniel Noboa, the new president of the Republic, begins to work,” he said after National Electoral Council President Diana Atamaint declared him the winner of the extraordinary election.
He spoke his first words as president-elect from the patio of his house in Olón commune, in the coastal province of Santa Elena, where he set up a small stage with tents due to the light rain, and was accompanied by his wife Lavinia Valbonesi.
With 91.46 percent of the votes counted, Noboa obtained 52.28 percent compared to 47.72 percent for rival Luisa González.
The 35-year-old businessman, now the youngest president in the history of Ecuador, also wanted to thank those who have been part of his political movement, National Democratic Action (ADN), which he said was “a political project whose purpose was to restore a smile to the country, was to restore peace, to be able to provide education to the youth, employment to the number of people who are looking for it today, give peace of mind to families who today cannot go out the street and give progress to a country that has everything to be a global example.”
His aunt, the millionaire businesswoman Isabel Noboa also arrived at his home, as did UFC fighter Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera, and friends and supporters of the political alliance that sponsored him. Soldiers and police surrounded the house to avoid incidents.
Noboa took advantage of his short speech, for which he took off the bulletproof vest he wore for almost the entire campaign, to thank González, who just minutes earlier had accepted her defeat.
Noboa achieved Sunday night what his father, banana magnate Álvaro Noboa, was never able to, despite having been a candidate five times during his political career.
In the morning, Noboa expressed confidence he would win the election and said that the trend at that point was “irreversible.”
The businessman and former assemblyman will assume the presidency to complete the 2021-2025 period and will complete the mandate of current president, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, who chose to leave office early by invoking the “mutual death” clause in May.
With this constitutional mechanism, Lasso sparked a snap election as the move dissolved the National Assembly (parliament) while it was preparing to vote on a motion to dismiss him as the last step in his impeachment trial in which he was accused of embezzlement, a charge that he rejects.
Noboa will assume the reins of Ecuador until May 2025, at which time he will be eligible for re-election for a period of four years, when the country returns to its normal electoral calendar. EFE
cb/tw
