Businessman Daniel Noboa was elected president of Ecuador this Sunday evening, October 15, becoming at 35 the youngest head of state in the country’s history, announced the National Electoral Council (CNE).
The latest available results relate to 91.46% of the votes cast and give Mr. Noboa the winner with 52.3% of the votes.
His opponent, the socialist candidate Luisa Gonzalez, runner-up to ex-president Rafael Correa, would collect 47.7% of the votes. She admitted defeat, congratulating her rival.
“May President-elect Daniel Noboa receive our most sincere congratulations,” she said from a grand hotel in Quito. “In a democracy, we have never called for the burning of a city and we have never cried fraud,” she added, warmly thanking her supporters as well as the voters who voted for her.
Son of the greatest fortune in the country
With “more than 90% of votes validated nationally, the CNE considers these results irreversible and Ecuador has virtually elected Daniel Noboa as president,” declared the president of this body, Diana Atamaint.
As the results were published during the evening, concerts of horns could be heard in the capital.
In number of votes, according to the latest figures available, Mr. Noboa, deputy from May 2021 to May 2023 before running in the presidential election, has accumulated more than 4.9 million votes compared to nearly 4.5 million for his rival.
He is the son of businessman and former presidential candidate Alvaro Noboa, who controls the country’s banana trade and is considered the nation’s largest fortune.
