2023-08-21 02:30:57
Who is Daniel Noboa: the big surprise of the general elections in Ecuador
The former legislator and businessman will contest the ballot once morest the Correísmo candidate
Daniel Noboa will dispute the second round in Ecuador. (REUTERS/Karen Toro)
At the age of 35, Daniel Noboa Azín has become the surprise of the general elections in Ecuador. The candidate of the National Democratic Alliance entered the ballot and will face the candidate Luisa González, of the Citizen Revolution, related to correísmo. Noboa, who in the first polls appeared at the tail of the preferences, has delivered a speech that does not fall into the dichotomy: correísmo vs. anti-correism.
The Electoral Council closed the elections in Ecuador
With 70% of valid tally sheets scrutinized, the president of the National Electoral Council, Diana Atamaint, addressed the nation and described this day as evidence of the “love of Ecuadorians for the homeland and the deep desire to have a country without violence”. The electoral authority stressed that, despite the wave of violence that the country is experiencing, the general elections were held without incident and thanked the work of the officials and members of the Armed Forces and the Police.
In his message, Atamaint took the opportunity to congratulate the candidates Luisa González, from the Revolución Ciudadana movement, and Daniel Noboa, from the National Democratic Alliance, who will contest the ballot scheduled for October of this year: “Our congratulations to the candidates for the dignity of Presidential Binomial, for accepting the results,” he said.
Christian Zurita accepted third place
The replacement for the assassinated Fernando Villavicencio spoke following learning the official results with more than 50% of the tally sheets: “Fernando’s candidacy has an important vote that should be a path of hope for Ecuadorians,” said Zurita, a journalist and friend of Villavicencio.
As has been seen since he assumed the candidacy, Zurita appeared in front of the media with a bulletproof vest and helmet.
“For me it was an abrupt leap into politics. We will take the following days to consider what the next steps are,” said the candidate, who assured that many voters took refuge in other candidacies due to the uncertainty that the National Electoral Council created once morest his candidacy. Zurita also accepts defeat.
Yaku Pérez spoke: “This does not end here”
The candidate for the left-wing alliance Claro que puede published a message on his social networks. Pérez, who obtained around 3.8% and ranked sixth out of eight candidates, began his publication by celebrating the results of the popular consultation in favor of Yasuní. He then thanked his voters: “Thanks to the people who trusted in this project, to those who gave us their hug in every corner of the country.”
Pérez, who was running for the Presidency for the second time, reiterated his commitment to environmental causes: “This does not end here, sometimes you have to take a step back to move two forwards and two environmental Consultations took a step forward. From where I am, I will continue fighting for socio-environmental causes, always thinking of future generations”, he assured.
Jan Topic acknowledged defeat and offered his support to Daniel Noboa
“Ecuadorians, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for these three months. It has been extremely gratifying to meet thousands of you in the different provinces of our country. I accept the results of the elections, but not before highlighting the excellent performance of Daniel Noboa’s campaign this last week”, he affirmed.
And he added: “Ecuador is experiencing its worst insecurity crisis, let’s hope that the next leader manages to rescue our Republic. To our work team, infinite thanks: we leave everything on the pitch!”
First statements by Luisa González: she recognized the second ballot
Luisa González, the candidate of the Revolución Ciudadana movement, related to former President Rafael Correa, spoke regarding the results obtained in the elections: “We want to thank, first, all the militancy of the Revolución Ciudadana, secondly, all the candidates for the Assembly and thirdly To all the citizens of this beautiful homeland. Our gratitude and our applause is for the Ecuadorian people”
According to González, electoral day mobilized Ecuadorians, despite the fear of the wave of violence that the country is experiencing: “This brave Ecuador, this Ecuador with a sense of homeland, mobilized, broke the fear and voted for a woman … It is the first time that a woman obtains such a high percentage in the first round”.
The candidate, who addressed her militancy, promised peace, work and security.
First statements by Daniel Noboa: “We are in the second round”
The candidate of the Alianza Acción por la Democracia and who is consecrated as the surprise of the elections gave his first statements and thanked the voters for their confidence that would allow him to contest the run-off once morest the candidate Luisa González, close to Rafael Correa: “We are very happy. The Ecuadorian people have won… Starting tomorrow we must start working once more. We are in the second round”.
Noboa, 35 years old and son of businessman and politician Álvaro Noboa, when asked if he will seek to form a coalition once morest correísmo, assured: “I am not in favor of the lashing but of a new project.” He also said that he has not yet had any calls from the other candidates. Unofficially it is known that Sonnenholzner would support him in the second round.
Otto Sonnenholzner spoke
With 14% of the tally sheets counted, Otto Sonnenholzner accepted defeat and congratulated the candidates who will be in the runoff, until now they would be Luisa González and Daniel Noboa. “We are calm and grateful,” he told his militancy.
The Electoral Council of Ecuador confirmed a cyber attack on its voting system abroad
Ecuadorians residing abroad warned regarding problems in telematic voting
The National Electoral Council enabled telematic voting for Ecuadorians abroad for the elections, but the platform suffered attacks. (CNE)
The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint, reported that the platform that would be used to record the votes of Ecuadorians abroad suffered computer attacks from seven countries, but that there was no violation of the confirmed votes. Faced with these alerts, the CNE restricted access to its website and mobile application through which the results will be transmitted.
Stake
The National Electoral Council confirmed this Sunday that 82.26% of the voters registered for the presidential and legislative elections this Sunday came to exercise that right, which represents an abstention of 17.74%.
Problems in voting abroad
The Electoral Tribunal denounced that there were cyber attacks once morest the telematic voting platform outside the country, which is why many voters were unable to vote abroad. “It affected the fluidity, but the votes have not been violated,” they stated. The National Electoral Council confirmed that the attacks were carried out from 7 countries: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia and China.
Voting centers closed and counting begins
A voter chooses her candidate in early presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)
The August 9 assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio shuffled the cards on the electoral map and left a question mark regarding the outcome of the elections, in which everything indicates that no one will have enough margin to avoid the ballot on October 15.
The candidates voted protected by strong security schemes, while the military and police searched people at the entrance to the polling stations. President and vice president are elected, as well as the 137 congressmen who will complete the current four-year term scheduled until May 2025.
The face of the late Villavicencio, a former centrist journalist who was second in the polls before his murder, appeared on the ballot papers along with seven other candidates, since they were already printed when he was shot by a Colombian hit man.
He was replaced in the candidacy by journalist Christian Zurita, his best friend and partner in investigations that exposed major corruption scandals. One of them led to the sentence of former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) to eight years in prison.
At the antipodes, the presidency is disputed by Luisa González (45), Correa’s dolphin and the only female candidate. Although Ecuador is banned for the publication of surveys, González is the favorite.
Before the murder, a poll showed Villavicencio behind González and then former sniper and former paratrooper Jan Topic (right), indigenous leader Yaku Pérez (left) and former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner (right).
After Villavicencio’s murder, a new poll showed González still in front and Topic in second place.
similar participation
Participation in the extraordinary general elections in Ecuador stood at 45.41% at 1:00 p.m. local time (18:00 GMT), similar to that of other elections held previously, according to the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE). ), Diana Atamaint.
Six hours following the opening of the polling stations at 7:00 a.m. local time (12:00 GMT), and with four hours to go before they close at 5:00 p.m. local time (22:00 GMT), Atamaint confirmed that “The day is carried out with absolute normality, without incidence of violence.”
The president of the CNE encouraged Ecuadorians to go out and vote because “democracy needs its people to express themselves at the polls”, within elections that are held under strong security measures in the face of the wave of violence in the country and that led to the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio on August 9.
With a helmet, bulletproof vest and behind an armored curtain, Christian Zurita voted
The candidate who replaces the assassinated Fernando Villavicencio wore a helmet and a bulletproof vest surrounded by bodyguards
Surrounded by a strong security operation, Christian Zurita, the Construye movement candidate who replaced the assassinated Fernando Villavicencio, voted at a school in northern Quito, where he appeared wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet.
The 53-year-old journalist was covered by a protective shield when he was at the polling station. He saluted and raised his fist as heavily armed policemen surrounded him. He gave brief statements amidst the tumult and shouting.
Christian Zurita (Archyde.com)
“We are up to the circumstances. We are going to face with determination what it means to move this country forward, ”he came to say while he was rushed to leave the place.
The OAS sees normality in the first hours of the elections
The electoral observation mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) deployed in Ecuador for the extraordinary general elections observed this Sunday full normality during the first hours of the vote, although it urged an expeditious solution to the problems raised in telematic voting .
During a visit to a polling station in Quito, the head of the OAS electoral mission in Ecuador, Panamanian Isabel de Saint Malo, indicated that they are “satisfied” with the reports of normality they have from observers of the international organization deployed in 20 provinces of the country.
The former vice president and former foreign minister of Panama stressed that even in the most violent and conflictive areas of the country, polling stations have been set up normally and the population has come to vote early in the morning in an orderly and fluid manner.
De Saint Malo urged Ecuadorians to go vote because “that duty is an opportunity that unfortunately not all countries have.” “It is an opportunity that must be seized,” he added.
Likewise, he reiterated the call made on the eve of the vote to avoid threats and verbal violence, “which does not correspond to democracy or an electoral process” and to respect the results by the candidates and political organizations.
He also congratulated the Ecuadorian State for the redoubling of security for this voting day, following the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, which occurred on August 9, when he was riddled with bullets by Colombian hitmen as he left an electoral rally.
De Saint Malo, who also led the OAS electoral observation mission for the Ecuadorian general elections of 2021, acknowledged that the main difference with respect to that process is the increase in violence and crimes once morest candidates and politicians, among other authorities. .
Ecuadorians report problems to exercise telematic voting from Spain
Ecuadorians in countries like Spain reported this Sunday problems on the platform established to exercise telematic voting, the only form of suffrage available for the Ecuadorian population registered abroad to participate in these extraordinary general elections.
Voters residing in both Spain and Italy, Germany, Norway and Great Britain, among other countries, reported problems with the platform provided by the National Electoral Council (CNE), one of the novelties of these elections.
In some cases an error message appeared due to “a network problem”, as EFE was able to verify.
Dozens of Ecuadorians also went to the usual polling place in Madrid in other previous electoral processes, unaware that the telematic modality was the only one enabled on this occasion to vote.
Jan Topic promised security
The candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador Jan Topic, a former legionnaire and businessman specializing in security, expressed himself optimistic this Sunday in defeating violence and correísmo with these extraordinary general elections.
“First of all is security,” Topic reaffirmed following casting his vote in his native city of Guayaquil, where he was confident of going to the second round of these presidential elections.
Topic, which is presented by an alliance of parties led by the conservative Social Christian Party (PSC), reiterated the need to “eradicate the violence” that the country is going through, in a spiral where the presidential candidate Fernando was assassinated on August 9. Villavicencio.
The security specialist, who has been nicknamed during the electoral campaign as the “Ecuadorian Bukele” for his promises of a “strong hand” to combat organized crime and combat prisons, asked voters to look at “who has the experience, the plan and the will to neutralize the violence”.
“Many speak, but there is only one who knows how to do it,” said the former legionary, referring to himself.
Topic commented that “security and employment have to go hand in hand, because there is not one thing without the other” when considering that there will be no investment in a country that does not have security, and without investment there will be no employment.
The candidate wished for “zero attacks” following these elections and “that everyone can vote in peace and security”, without the strong security device developed by the Police and the Armed Forces to protect the electoral precincts.
Likewise, he also saw himself ready to go to a second round and defeat correísmo, which seeks to return to power through the lawyer and former assembly member Luisa González, the candidate of the Citizen Revolution, the movement led by former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017). .
Yaku Perez voted
The candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador Yaku Pérez assured that in the extraordinary general elections this Sunday in Ecuador, honesty will win over corruption and ecology over extractivism.
The indigenous leftist and environmentalist asserted that today “life, hope, Yasuní and Chocó” win, in reference to the latter two to the plebiscite to leave oil from an important deposit in the Amazon on land, and to prohibit mining in the Chocó Andino area, classified as a biosphere reserve by Unesco.
Yaku Pérez and his mother at a polling station in Cuenca (via Archyde.com)
In a press conference following exercising the right to vote in his native Cuenca, an Andean city in the south of the country, Pérez indicated that the “previous governments already had the opportunity” but they led Ecuador to a “national tragedy, and this time, ” the country is bankrupt.”
“We are going to have to lift, rebuild and rehabilitate. It is going to be hard to get out of this structural violence”, he added.
He assured that his is a candidacy that is not stained with corruption, and he was convinced to go to the second round and win: “We are going to have the reins of Ecuador to change history forever” and overcome the violence that the country is experiencing , said.
Escorted by his mother and his two daughters, Pérez noted that they and the people are his bodyguards: “I don’t have a bulletproof vest, what I have is an anti-corruption, anti-crime vest.”
The use of bulletproof vests by two candidates, as well as by some members of the press, occurred following Colombian hitmen assassinated presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio on August 9 as he was leaving a political rally in Quito.
The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador, Diana Atamaint, in a file photograph. EFE/Jose Jacome
The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador, Diana Atamaint, encouraged Ecuadorians this Sunday to go to vote in the extraordinary general elections to, in this way, condemn the violence and ratify their commitment to democracy.
“Those of us who believe in the Rule of Law, the answer must be democracy, democracy and more democracy. I invite you to vote with optimism and with the confidence that the Armed Forces, the National Police and the CNE have put in place to guarantee peaceful and safe elections through a security plan”, Atamaint pointed out.
The president of the CNE also ratified the decision taken by the Government and by the electoral authorities not to postpone the elections following the murder of Villavicencio, riddled with shots by alleged Colombian hitmen as he left an electoral rally in Quito.
”Despite the events that have occurred in these weeks that cause pain and mourn the country’s democracy, it is necessary to specify that the non-execution of the elections might represent their annulment. These violent acts will not stop us, because we all defend peace and democracy,” explained Atamaint.
”May the exercise of our rights be our best defense once morest those who seek to take away our peace and sow fear through violence. May each one’s vote be a symbol of peaceful coexistence, progress and rationality”, he wished.
The head of the electoral body also thanked the support of more than 53,000 members of the National Police deployed on the occasion of the elections, to which will be added a significant contingent of the Armed Forces under the state of emergency declared by the Government following the murder. from Villavicencio.
Polling stations open
The candidates Otto Sonnenholzner, Christian Zurita, Luisa González, Yaku Perez and Jan Topic
Some 13.4 of the 18.3 million Ecuadorians must exercise the mandatory vote between 07:00 and 17:00 local time (12:00 and 22:00 GMT) to elect president and vice president, as well as the 137 congressmen who will complete the current four-year period scheduled until May 2025.
The assassination on August 9 of the candidate Fernando Villavicencio, shot to death, shuffled the cards on the electoral map and left a mystery regarding the result of the elections, in which everything indicates that none will have enough margin to avoid the ballot on October 15 .
The once peaceful South American country has in recent years become a center of operations for foreign and local drug cartels that impose a regime of terror with killings, kidnappings and extortion.
Added to the violence is an institutional crisis that has kept the country without Congress for three months, when the unpopular President Guillermo Lasso (right) decided to dissolve it and call early elections to avoid impeachment in a political trial for corruption.
The presidential
The face of the late Villavicencio, a former centrist journalist who was second in the polls before his assassination, will appear on the ballot papers along with seven other candidates, since they were already printed when he was shot by a Colombian hit man.
He is replaced in the candidacy by journalist Christian Zurita, his best friend who was also threatened and a partner in investigations that exposed major corruption scandals. One of them led to the sentence of former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) to eight years in prison.
At the antipodes, the presidency is disputed by Luisa González, 45, Correa’s dolphin and the only female candidate. Although Ecuador is banned for the publication of surveys, González is the favorite.
Before the assassination, a poll showed Villavicencio behind González and then former sniper and former paratrooper Jan Topic (right), indigenous leader Yaku Pérez (left) and former vice president Otto Sonnenholzner (right).
After Villavicencio’s murder, a new poll showed González still in front and Topic in second place.
In the midst of a wave of violence, Ecuador votes to elect the president who will complete the term of Guillermo Lasso
Eight candidates seek to reach the presidential chair in the face of citizen clamor to recover security in the streets. There would be a ballot in October
The elections on Sunday will define the authorities that will complete the period of Guillermo Lasso. (EFE/Jose Jacome)
Ecuadorians will go to the polls this Sunday, August 20, to vote in unprecedented extraordinary elections and in the midst of the most serious security crisis in national history. Around 13 million voters will choose a new presidential binomial, 137 legislators and will decide whether or not to continue with the exploitation of crude oil in one of the Yasuní blocks, in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The choice of bulletproof vests
Ecuador today elects the successor to Guillermo Lasso in elections marked by the violence of drug trafficking. The correísta candidate, Luisa González, appears first in the polls and Christian Zurita, the replacement for the assassinated Fernando Villavicencio, might be the surprise
The presidential candidate, Christian Zurita, who replaced the murdered, Fernando Villavicencio, appears at the closing of the campaign in Quito with a bulletproof vest and helmet. (REUTERS/Henry Romero)
The new mayoress of Manta, Marciana Valdivieso, who assumed command of the municipality following the crime last month of the mayor, Agustín Intriago, traveled to the city of Guayaquil, some 200 kilometers away, to buy her new “work uniform.” She went to the Police Tactical Equipment premises, on Avenida de las Américas, where they had prepared a bodysuit for her, a kind of bulletproof belt made of synthetic Kevlar fiber. It cost her $1,008 and she says she is “very satisfied” because she is “protected and maintains a feminine figure.” She is just one of the dozens of politicians and businessmen who in recent days have bought bulletproof vests for around 1,600 dollars with the inclusion of side protection and helmets for around 600 or 700 dollars. Ecuador is going through an unprecedented wave of drug-trafficking violence unleashed in the middle of the presidential campaign that this Sunday will determine who will lead the country to get out of the crisis.
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