Iran Press/ America: Ecuadoreans are voting to choose their next president, weighing pledges to improve the economy and control a spiralling security situation from a businessman who is heir to a banana fortune and a leftist who could be the country’s first woman leader.
Daniel Noboa, a center-right scion of a banana empire, led Ecuador’s presidential race on Sunday night with nearly three-quarters of the votes counted, in a high-stakes campaign driven by an electorate frustrated with the country’s surging violence and ailing economy.
Thirty five-year-old Noboa, a surprise qualifier for the second round run-off, has also pledged to house dangerous criminals on prison ships.
His victory would fulfill a long-held family ambition - he grew up accompanying his banana baron father Alvaro during the latter's multiple failed attempts to become president.
Ecuador closed 2022 with the highest homicide rate in its history, 26 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, according to official data and the numbers continue to rise despite Guillermo Lasso's government resorting to a state of emergency in an attempt to control the problem. 219
