A 35-year-old newcomer to politics became the new president of Ecuador

Daniel Noboa was elected the new president of Ecuador in the second round of extraordinary elections held on Sunday. He received 4% more votes than his competitor, Luisa Gonzalez. Noboa will become the youngest president in the history of the country: he is 35 years old.

Daniel Noboa is a new figure on the Ecuadorian political scene, unlike his father, the big businessman Alvaro Noboa, who ran for president five times, but never won.

The main tasks of the new president will be the fight against high crime in Ecuador and improving the state of the economy, which suffered during the pandemic. In his pre-election program, Noboa promised to focus on the youth, their greater representation in politics and the creation of new jobs for young people. About a quarter of the country’s population are people aged 18 to 29 years. “Ecuador will once again become a country of smiles and peace,” Noboa said.

To fight against organized criminal groups, many of which continue to operate even though their leaders are in prison, Noboa intends to create new units of the security service, improve the weapons of the existing ones, and keep criminals on prison ships, from where it will be more difficult for them to communicate with accomplices

Early elections in Ecuador were called after the previous president, Guillermo Lasso, dissolved the National Assembly by decree and resigned in May. Before that, Lasso was accused of participating in corruption related to the transportation of oil, and the National Assembly was considering his impeachment. Thus, Noboa’s presidential term will be only 17 months – the remainder of Lasso’s term. At the next elections in May 2025, he will be able to run again for a full four-year term.

• Organized crime is an increasingly acute problem in Ecuador. Gangs connected, among other things, to drug trafficking keep the population in fear. During the election campaign, one of the presidential candidates, deputy Fernando Villavicencio, known for his anti-corruption investigations, was killed. Later, those arrested on suspicion of his murder were found dead in prison.