His message was shared on social networks on Monday morning, after he left his supporters stranded last night, who were waiting for him in a hotel in northern Quito to celebrate the vote.
The president is credited with a victory in the first round of the elections, although the counting continues and the difference with his rival from the RC is getting shorter.
“Yesterday we achieved what had not been seen in years: we won the first round against all the parties of Old Ecuador,” Noboa said in the statement.
At this time, with 92 percent of the votes counted, the president-candidate has 44.31 percent of the votes and Gonzalez has 43.83 percent, according to official data from the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Noboa also celebrated the results of the vote of the legislators, where his block of National Democratic Action (ADN) will be one of the largest in the National Assembly (Parliament) together with the representatives of the RC, according to preliminary data.
“We won and we took the most important step of all: consolidating a different Assembly, becoming the first force,” said the ruler.
Analysts consider that Noboa’s move to a second round was apparently understood by the Government as a defeat after proclaiming to the four winds that they would triumph this Sunday.
“This is incredible… When the first thing you should do is take ownership of the victory (even if it is narratively) you opt for silence… Incomprehensible!” commented political consultant Pedro Donoso in the face of an entire night of silence from Noboa and his team.
The vote counting continues while the executive secretary of the RC, Andres Arauz, warned on his X account that in the early morning the CNE deleted “all the image and data files on the Azure server provided for political organizations.”
The data and images have been replaced by new files, denounced Arauz, who asked other parties and international observers to investigate this anomaly.
González herself made the complaint on Monday morning in an interview with the local channel Teleamazonas, where she stressed that the campaign was “David against Goliath” because the president, without asking for a license for proselytizing activities, used the state apparatus and public property to get votes.
In this context of accusations and political polarization, Ecuador will return to the polls on April 13 for a new runoff to define the head of the Executive for the period 2025-2029.
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