Incumbent President Daniel Noboa secured a decisive victory in Ecuador’s presidential election on Sunday, as voters strongly backed his tough-on-crime stance amid surging cartel violence across the country.
With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council announced that Noboa held a commanding 12-point lead over his leftist challenger, Luisa Gonzalez—making his re-election all but certain.
Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, compared to Gonzalez’s 44 percent—a significantly wider margin than anticipated after the two candidates were nearly tied in the first round.
Celebrating the win in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president hailed the outcome as a “historic victory.”
“A huge hug to all those Ecuadorians who always believed in this young president!” Noboa told an enthusiastic crowd. “Ecuadorians have spoken. From tomorrow morning, we get back to work.”
Gonzalez, visibly taken aback by the result and the apparent end of her bid to become Ecuador’s first female president, immediately challenged the outcome. She accused Noboa of orchestrating “the most grotesque electoral fraud” and demanded a full recount.
“I refuse to believe that the people prefer lies over the truth,” she said, though she did not offer any evidence to support her claims of fraud.
