Businessman Daniel Noboa is to become Ecuador’s youngest president at 35 years old.
Noboa won the election on Sunday taking 52.3% of the vote, ahead of Luisa González’s 47.7%. His opponent conceded defeat securing the historic win.
The 35-year-old, of the National Democratic Action party, is the son of Álvaro Noboa, who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency five times, reports the BBC. He will however only serve 17 months in officer until the next election.
Noboa will govern from the end of November until May 2025. The election was held after former Prime Minister Guillermo Lasso dissolved parliament amid an impeachment trial.
Noboa will be sworn in on November 25 – just five days before he will turn 36. After his win, in the second round of voting, he said: “Tomorrow we start work for this new Ecuador, we start working to rebuild a country seriously battered by violence, by corruption and by hate.”
Ecuador has seen an increase in gang violence in recent years and the presidential campaign was marred by the assassination in August of candidate Fernando Villavicencio. As a journalist, Villavicencio had campaigned against corruption.
Violent crime has also seen an increase in Ecuador. The nation has become a hub for drugs gangs due to its location between Colombia and Peru, the top two producers of cocaine in the world.
Noboa has suggested moving some of Ecuador’s most hardened criminals to prison ships off the coast. He hopes this will break up the prison gangs that have engaged in deadly warfare inside the country’s jails.
He also wanted to increase security at the borders to clampdown on cocaine shipments.
gang violence in recent years and the presidential campaign was marred by the assassination in August of candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
