Businessman Daniel Noboa at 35, will become the youngest president in Ecuador’s history, after winning the recent run-off.
Noboa, a former lawmaker, beat leftist rival Luisa González in a run-off election on Sunday, taking at least 52 per cent of the vote. The President-elect has vowed to “restore peace” to the drug gang war-ravaged South American country.
“Tomorrow, your new president of the republic will get to work,” Noboa, who will take office in December to become the country’s youngest-ever leader, told supporters on Sunday night in a victory speech from his mansion on the Pacific coast. “We’ll start working to rebuild a country that has been gravely hit by violence, corruption and hatred.”
Noboa campaigned on a market-friendly platform of youth employment and promoting foreign investment. The 35-year-old served a short stint as a lawmaker, from 2021 until May this year, and chaired the economic development commission in the country’s National Assembly. Before that, he held management roles at Noboa Corp, the family business.
His father is Álvaro Noboa, one of Ecuador’s richest men and once a serial candidate for president himself. The family company was a leading producer of bananas, among other exports.
The snap election was triggered when President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly in May using a “mutual death” constitutional clause. The self-made banking millionaire faced impeachment proceedings in the opposition-controlled assembly. He did not stand for re-election.
Noboa will complete the final 15 months of Lasso’s term, leaving little time to advance policy goals. He will face opposition in a hostile assembly and economic headwinds including a widening fiscal deficit, lower energy revenues and higher interest on debt repayments.
