Luisa González of the Citizen’s Revolution (RC) and Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, who is running for re-election, will hold a run-off vote to determine the future president of the South American nation.
Noboa and his team apparently expected to win in a single round, despite the fact that several polls and experts predicted a fairly even scenario with the representative of the Correista movement in the elections this Sunday, 9 February.
After the official announcement that he would have to compete again for the presidential seat, the president did not even show up at the place where his supporters and the press were waiting for the celebrations.
For the communicator and sociologist Irene León, of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defence of Humanity (REDH)-Ecuador Chapter, the idea of positioning a supposed victory for the president in the first round was a media strategy that did not work in the end.
«Many people are in favour of an urgent change due to the critical conditions in which the country finds itself in all areas, and this was seen in the campaign closings with the popular support for the CR candidate, as had not been seen for a long time», commented León in declarations to Prensa Latina.
In the analyst’s opinion, going to the second round for González means a moral victory in the midst of scenarios of possible fraud and irregularities, including the accusation that the Armed Forces had a parallel computing centre.
León recalled how in recent days Progressive International and other observers have warned that the process was uneven due to the president-candidate’s legal abuses.
In this context, the CR is ratified as a powerful political force in the country, the expert insisted.
Like León, other analysts agree that Noboa has managed to overcome obstacles, such as the 14 hours of blackouts a day, the crime against four children in Guayaquil, the security crisis, economic difficulties and other problems with a campaign based on Tik Tok, dance and music, but which apparently appeals to the electorate.
He added that after the declaration of internal armed conflict by Noboa in January 2024, as a strategy against organised crime, a vision of an iron fist against insecurity was positioned in the country in line with the extreme right.
However, according to the communicator, González has made an integral and humanist proposal for the problem that makes it possible for a sector of society, which is democratic, to follow this path in order to confront the main concern of Ecuadorians.
In terms of the economy, the CR’s stance on diversifying sources of income and other variants of growth has brought to the forefront issues that have not been addressed in public debate recently, she added.
It will be a very close second round again, so the CR will have to build on the principles that have already been announced, she predicted.
This run-off, between the same protagonists as in 2023, will take place on 13 April.
