TheKnight. Posted November 25, 2023 Posted November 25, 2023 Daniel Noboa, 36 years old, the youngest president elected at the polls in the history of Ecuador, assumes the presidency of the country this Thursday, November 23 for exactly 1 year and 6 months, in what many have already called an “express government.” ”. Normally a presidential term in Ecuador lasts 4 years, but in this case, Noboa is not starting a new one but completing the current one that the outgoing president Guillermo Lasso did not finish. Last May, Lasso, in the middle of a political trial for embezzlement, triggered the constitutional mechanism colloquially known as “crossed death,” an unprecedented event in Ecuador. With the activation of this constitutional mechanism, the Assembly was automatically dissolved and early elections were called in which, surprisingly and after a marathon rise, Daniel Noboa was elected in the second round on October 15 with the Democratic Birth Action movement (ADN). He graduated in Public Administration from Harvard University and held a seat in the dissolved Assembly. Noboa, who defines himself as center-left, won by promising employment and a tough line against insecurity, the main concern of Ecuadorians, and by moving away from confrontation with other political parties. The question that many are asking now that he assumes the presidency of Ecuador is what is the point of electing a new government for such a short period? More so in a country that is suffering from a wave of insecurity, with a record number of violent deaths in the context of the drug trafficking boom, and in the midst of a serious economic crisis with some US$5 billion in fiscal deficit expected for 2023, according to data from the Corporation for Development Studies (CORDES) Relax tensions Noboa begins his government with an agreement in the Assembly that, according to political scientist Irene Vélez, columnist for the newspaper Expreso, shows a pragmatic president. He will facilitate governance with a bloc that ensures a majority vote to execute his plan. Something that his predecessor Guillermo Lasso did not achieve, whose tension with the Assembly led precisely to a confrontation between both powers that ended in the “crossed death.” The president said that he has put the country's urgent needs "above political quarrels" after reaching an agreement with two of the most powerful parties in Ecuador: the Citizen Revolution led by former president Rafael Correa (which has the largest party in the country). legislative with 51 seats) and the traditional and conservative Social Christian Party, the fourth bench, which has 18 assembly members. “It is not a fragile majority, but we will have to see how the negotiations continue in the future,” says Vélez. In an interview with BBC Mundo shortly after the second round on October 15, vice president-elect Verónica Abad already highlighted the importance of these first steps in the Assembly for the political agenda of the new president: "Ecuador is in an emergency and we all need to walk on the same side; I believe that seeking legislative consensus, dialogue, is the path that politics needs to have effective and, above all, quick solutions." Noboa also reports public opinion with more than 60% approval according to the pollster CEDATOS. He has a short political career of only a couple of years, something that benefited him during the campaign where he presented himself as someone far from confrontation and the dichotomy between Correismo vs. anti-correism that has dominated Ecuadorian politics in recent years. https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c7291r4xxneo
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