With an average vote of 63.63% in 16 provinces of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa Azín, of the National Democratic Action (ADN) alliance, managed to win in the second round of the 2023 early elections. two months of campaigning helped Noboa Azín and his team pass through five provinces in which he narrowly surpassed, in the majority, his opponent Luisa González, of the Citizens’ Revolution (RC), and now to have in his favor almost three-quarters of the provinces of Equateur.

Already in the final x-ray of the electoral map, Noboa Azín, the eldest son of the five-time candidate for President of the Republic, Álvaro Noboa, positioned himself in the ten provinces of the Sierra, with Tungurahua as the one from which he received the most votes (74.52%) and Imbabura as the city with the least support (50.56%); while in the Amazon of the six provinces, the presidential candidate of the ADN alliance obtained the advantage in four of them: Morona Santiago, Napo, Pastaza and Zamora Chinchipe, obtaining an average vote of 71.8%.

El Oro was the only province on the Ecuadorian coast in which the 35-year-old Guayaquil native triumphed. In the second round, she obtained 50.17% of the votes, although in the first round she obtained less support than the Correismo candidate. On the other hand, in the Galapagos, Daniel Noboa Azín maintained the difference in his favor from the first round and for this second part he supported him with 66.95% of the total vote of the inhabitants registered on the islands that make up the archipelago.

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The president of the late Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Medardo Oleas, believes that the youth vote was the population group that supported Noboa Azín in these 16 provinces, especially because they were voters who did not feel identified with the traditional political class. These voters, he said, were looking for someone new, different, who would change the course of politics, who would be respectful and non-confrontational, instead of the bosses who ran the few traditional parties or the opportunists who launched these policies. movements that These are just electoral headers.

“It is a clear message for us to modify the law on political groups. We can’t have very bad political organizations that don’t open up or solve the country’s problems. This is a clear message, especially for Correismo, that it cannot be a policy of attack or disqualification. What people want is peace, balance, the fight against crime and, fundamentally, work. This is a clear message and this is why we must focus reforms to achieve the institutionalization of the country. “We don’t have institutions,” Oleas said.

It is precisely in this sense that Marcela Aguiñaga, president of the RC and prefect of Guayas, highlighted last Sunday evening, after Luisa González accepted the victory of Noboa Azín, that she obtained more than 4.5 million votes during this second round, the majority in the coastal region. provinces, but recognized that as a movement they undoubtedly had to think about why Correismo’s campaign proposals “are not successful” in the Central Sierra, starting with Pichincha, and in the Amazon.

He clarified that they are not defeated after the results of these elections, since they continue to be the leading political force in Ecuador and are still in the second round.

“To think we are beaten, no. I think this is a time for internal reflection on what is happening in the Central Sierra and the Amazon. (…) Despite this, we have shown once again that we have the support of Manabí, Esmeraldas, Santa Elena, Guayas, even if there is a setback in Guayaquil and not in the cantons. It is necessary to determine which of these proposals reached citizens and which did not. When the time comes, we will analyze these issues internally,” explained Aguiñaga.

In the first round of these elections, with seven more opponents than Luisa González, Daniel Noboa Azín only obtained a difference of votes in his favor in the provinces of Carchi, Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, Tungurahua and in the Amazon, Zamora Chinchipe.

For this second round, two of the three foreign electoral districts would also be added to the 16 provinces in which the leader of the ADN won: those composed of Canada and the United States, and that composed of Latin America-Caribbean- Africa. In the Europe-Oceania and Asia constituency, he did not obtain a majority of votes from eligible Ecuadorians.

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The expert in communication issues, José Rivera, highlights in the triumph of Noboa Azín, among other aspects, the use of social networks and digital platforms to position messages and especially those that go viral, that is say that people are infected by these, share the content, get in the trend, make your own content and above all identify with the candidate

For example, Rivera describes as well thought out the strategy of delivering the cardboard figurine of Noboa Azín almost at the end of the campaign, since this gave rise to the generation of numerous products from this image, which remained between the The hands of the public who received it were outside the scope of the campaign, but, for the most part, they ended up contributing to it. He also highlighted the campaign carried out in the territory by the winning candidate, which would demonstrate that visits to the territory continue to be important for the positioning of the candidate.

“Having presence and giving relevance to the towns and villages where the candidate is present reinforces this feeling of identification with the candidate. So, we saw that while in some cities he had an important position in the first round, the vote was actually much stronger in the second round,” the expert noted.

Oleas believes that the disqualification campaign was clearer on the networks than that aimed at analyzing the proposals. Regarding this last question, the former official maintains that the candidates’ proposals were not analyzed in depth, because it was a short campaign and with an ineffective promotion system. Rather, he says people voted with confidence in President Daniel Noboa Azín’s ability to structure a new system that attracts investment, provides greater sources of work or combats insecurity.

“So that’s what the young people analyzed. The proposals were very general and we cannot go into the proposals as being one of the reasons why they voted for Daniel Noboa Azín. (…) In the new vision of politics, young people reject these outdated leaders, the old partyocracy. This is why they are launching a cry of rebellion to those who are positive changes: no to confrontation, no to insult, no to disqualification,” Oleas said. (YO)