A conservative former banker has been elected president of Ecuador, defeating a left-wing protégé of Rafael Correa, the powerful exiled former president.
Guillermo Lasso, 65, won 52 per cent of the vote following a late surge in support in the days before yesterday’s election. It was his third run for office. His opponent was Andrés Arauz, a 36-year-old left-wing economist.
In his victory speech, Lasso, a self-made multimillionaire, said that he would work to create “the prosperity we all long for”. He has pledged to increase private-sector job creation and increase the monthly minimum wage. He also promised to ensure that 9 million people are vaccinated against Covid-19 in his first 100 days in office.
His victory hinders an effort by Correa, who ruled Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, to resolve his substantial legal problems via the installation of a politically allied president.
Correa, 58, who lives in Belgium, was convicted for corruption last year and faces an eight-year prison sentence if he returns to Ecuador. He is a charismatic politician and was once seen as a future leader of the so-called “pink tide” of elected left-wing leaders in South America.
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Following the result the former president tweeted that he wished Lasso luck in his role and said that his success would be good for all Ecuadoreans. He also said he hoped that what he described as “lawfare” — his word for using the law to persecute political opponents — would end.
Lasso, who takes office next month, could find his powers curbed by the country’s parliament, where his party has a minority. He will also need to build bridges with the more than 1.8 million Ecuadoreans who voided their votes, many of whom are from indigenous movements. Voting is compulsory in Ecuador.
He will take over from the current president, Lenin Moreno, 68, who chose not to stand for office again. Moreno, a former vice-president under Correa, dramatically broke ranks with his former mentor, who then described him as a traitor.
Ecuador’s neighbour Peru held first-round presidential elections yesterday. In an unexpected result, Pedro Castillo, 51, a radical socialist who supports undoing the country’s market-friendly policies, won the most votes. He is expected to be joined in the run-off by Keiko Fujimori, 45, a conservative who is the daughter of the country’s authoritarian former leader Alberto Fujimori.
