Ecuador's presidential election heads to second round
Ecuador's next president will be decided by a run-off vote in mid-April, following a tighter-than-expected first round between the conservative incumbent leader and a left-wing lawyer on Sunday.
The elections come as the country struggles to contain gang violence — related to the trafficking of cocaine — that has mushroomed in recent years.
Daniel Noboa, who has been president since 2023, had hoped to secure enough ballots to avoid a second round. To do so, he needed to secure at least 50% of the vote or win 40% with a 10-point margin of victory over his nearest rival.
However, Luisa González, a mentee of the influential former president Rafael Correa, did much better than pollsters had expected, finishing a close second.
After 91% of votes had been tallied, Noboa edged González by 44.3% to 43.8%, with the other 14 candidates trailing far behind them.
The pair were both relative political newcomers when they faced each other in the closely contested second round of the 2023 presidential elections.
Noboa, 37, the heir to a large fortune built on banana exports, began his political career in 2021, when he was elected to the National Assembly and chaired its Economic Development Commission.
He surprised analysts by coming second in the first round of the 2023 snap election, which followed then president Guillermo Lasso's decision to dissolve the National Assembly.
González, 47, was catapulted to political prominence in 2023 when she became the presidential candidate for Citizen Revolution, Correa's leftist party.
Correa, who served as the country's leader from 2007 to 2017, was sentenced in absentia in 2020 over corruption charges.
Under Noboa's presidency, Ecuadorians continue to feel the effects of a surge in gang-led violence and of regular power outages.
Last January, a gang leader broke out of prison and gang members took a television crew hostage live on air. In response, Noboa ordered a war against the gangs, mobilising the military in parts of the country where organised crime is now entrenched.
Although the murder rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 38.76 per 100,000 people last year, it is far higher than the rate of 6.85 per 100,000 people in 2019.
Noboa argues that his tough-on-crime stance is having an effect. But his critics say not enough is being done.
There are also concerns over some of his actions, including his decision last year to allow a police raid on Mexico's embassy in the capital, Quito, where Ecuador's former Vice President Jorge Glas was living.
González has told her supporters that she will be more effective than Noboa against crime and will improve the economy.
Over the weekend, she promised to 'change the dark reality' of a country where 'no one feels safe'.
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Euronews
a day ago
- Euronews
South Korea's new president vows to restart talks with North Korea
South Korea's new president Lee Jae-myung has promised to recommence talks with North Korea with the aim of securing peace on the Korean Peninsula. Lee, who was sworn in early on Wednesday following his victory in a snap election, outlined key policy goals for his five-year term, from foreign and economic policy to healing the country's political divide. In his inaugural address to the country's National Assembly, Lee pledged to deal with North Korean nuclear and other military threats with 'strong deterrence' bolstered by the South Korea-US military alliance. However, he also said he would restart talks with Pyongyang, which have not taken place in years, vowing to 'open a communication channel with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula through talks and cooperation'. How this will be received remains unclear, as Pyongyang has rejected talks with Seoul since 2019. While critics of the liberal have previously accused Lee of looking toward China and North Korea and away from the US and Japan, the leader also stressed that he wanted to grow the trilateral Seoul-Washington-Tokyo cooperation. "Through pragmatic diplomacy based on national interests, we will turn the crisis posed by the major shift in global economic and security landscapes into an opportunity to maximise our national interests,' Lee said. Lee's government will be forced to reckon with myriad challenges, including a slowing domestic economy, US tariff hike and a volatile international context. Lee, whose election victory came after a snap election was triggered in April by the removal of former conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol following his failed attempt to impose martial law last year, has repeatedly emphasised Seoul's alliance with Washington as the cornerstone of its foreign policy. Congratulating Lee on his election, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he wants to hold summit talks with Lee 'as early as possible' to further promote bilateral ties, while the US State Department said that Seoul and Washington share 'an ironclad commitment' to the alliance based on their 'mutual defence treaty, shared values, and deep economic ties'. As well as foreign policy, the new president, who won 49.3% of the votes cast in Tuesday's election against the main conservative contender Kim Moon-soo's 41.3%, pledged to wage a 'head-on battle' against the threats of recession in the country and boost government spending. Addressing the historic constitutional crisis that led to his presidency, Lee promised an in-depth investigation into Yoon's imposition of martial law, while calling for the country to come together and heal the divisions that followed the shocking incident last December. Alongside US tariffs, North Korea's growing military deals with Russia will pose an undeniable challenge. North Korea has been providing Russia with weapons and soldiers as it wages its war against Ukraine, with Pyongyang acknowledging for the first time in April that it has sent troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has also expressed his unwavering support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine South Korea, the US and allies fear that Russia may give Pyongyang technologies to aid its development of its nuclear weapons programme. Following North Korea's launch of the country's first naval destroyer last month, South Korean officials said the Choe Hyon warship was likely built with the aid of Russia. State media reported that the ship is designed to carry modern weapons including nuclear missiles, with Dr Edward Howell telling Euronews last month that North Korea's development of warships is central to the regime's aims. 'The nuclear ambitions are inextricably linked with Kim's desire for regime survival, but also to his desire for North Korea to be seen as an equal power, of equal status, to the United States," he said. "The development of these warships is intertwined with this nuclear recognition.' US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth will not attend a NATO-led meeting of more than 50 defence ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, an absence that will be seen as another sign of Washington pulling back from its support for Ukraine against Russia's war. For the first time since the US created an international group to coordinate military aid to Ukraine three years ago — following Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 — a Pentagon chief will not be present at a meeting of the defence ministers. Hegseth's absence from the meeting of the NATO Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG) was confirmed to Euronews by a spokesperson for the US Department of Defence, who cited scheduling issues. 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The US president has called for the 5% target, a demand which has been backed up by NATO chief Mark Rutte. However, none of NATO's 32 members — including the US — currently hit that level. The 5% target is expected to be split into 3.5% of spending directly on defence, and 1.5% on "defence-related" aspects such as cyber warfare and critical infrastructure. A NATO official told Euronews that "3.5% gives us equivalence with the US". What might constitute "defence-related spending" will have to be worked out, a source familiar with the issue said, with some NATO countries pushing for things such as "military mobility", including road-building, to be considered part of such spending. The timeline of when countries should meet the proposed 5% target will also be under discussion, the source said. The planned rise in spending is in response to US demands that the burden of Europe's security be handled by the continent. 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Local France
a day ago
- Local France
OPINION: 130 years on, the Dreyfus affair still matters to France and the world
In 1894 an obscure Jewish French army captain was falsely convicted of espionage and treason. Alfred Dreyfus spent five years alone in a cage on Devil's Island in the French Caribbean before he was pardoned and finally rehabilitated in 1906. For many decades 'the Dreyfus case' divided France. To the Catholic fundamentalist, antisemitic and ultra-patriotic Right, his guilt – no matter the lack of evidence - became an article of patriotic faith. To the Left, and not just the Left, the struggle to prove his innocence symbolised the importance and the fragility of the democratic and personal freedoms won by the French Revolution. On Monday, the National Assembly voted unanimously to promote Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general 90 years after his death. Until relatively recently, any unanimous parliamentary decision on the Dreyfus case in France would have been unthinkable. Advertisement This week's vote managed to be both unanimous and controversial. Of the 577 deputies, only 197 voted. Thirty-eight were from the far-right Rassemblement National, direct descendants of the Vichy regime of 1940-44 which rehabilitated the senior officers who lied and cheated to frame Dreyfus. Forty-one of the pro-Dreyfus votes came from the hard-Left La France Insoumise, which has been accused in recent months of anti-semitism in its unconditional support for the Palestinian cause. The centrist Modem party, the party of the prime minister François Bayrou, refused to take part. They said that the vote, sponsored by their coalition partners, Renaissance, the party of President Emmanuel Macron, gave the far-right and the hard-left a cheap opportunity to white-wash their anti-semitism. There may be some truth in that but it misses a larger point. The Dreyfus case IS partly about anti-semitism. The persecution of Captain Alfred Dreyfus persuaded Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, that the future for the Jewish people was the creation of a Jewish state. But 'the case' is also about something broader - something which threatens democratic values in the 2020s as much as it did in the 1890s. The trampling of the rule of law in the name of patriotism? Politics in which facts do not shape political opinions but quasi-religious beliefs establish bogus facts? We are confronted in 2025 with the same issues which the novelist Emile Zola addressed in 1898 in his celebrated front-page article on the Dreyfus case under the banner headline: 'J'accuse'. Twenty-seven years ago, in a speech to mark the centenary of Zola's article, President Jacques Chirac said: 'The Dreyfus Affair…tore French society apart, divided families, split the country into two enemy camps, which attacked each other with exceptional violence ... It was a reminder, that the forces of darkness, intolerance and injustice can penetrate to the highest levels of the state.' The last sentence is prophetic and chilling. Chirac might have been speaking about Donald Trump. 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It discredited the forces of extreme nationalism, anti-semitism, clericalism and nostalgic royalism which might otherwise have pushed France into a kind of proto-fascism or Francoism 30 years before Hitler, Mussolini or Franco. That conflict is still with us but is no longer at the centre of French politics alone. It can be seen in the lies and law-trampling of President Trump, in the brutal creed of Vladimir Putin and in the kleptocratic rule of Viktor Orban in Hungary. Advertisement And, yes, the 'temptation to justify almost anything for raisons d'etat ' also describes the murderous and cynical forever war for his own survival waged by Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. The Dreyfus affair has never had quite the same resonance outside France (Jewish communities apart). In the early 20th century, British newspapers wrote puzzled or mocking articles, demanding to know what all the fuss was about. The parallels are not exact but you can see similar comments today minimising the Trump administration's wrongful arrest and imprisonment in El Salvador of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. We should no longer ask why France is obsessed with Alfred Dreyfus. History has told us, and continues to tell us, that 'the case' was about more than anti-semitism and far more than the persecution of one innocent man.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
New South Korean President Lee takes power after resounding election win
South Korea 's center-left Lee Jae-myung was declared president Wednesday after winning a snap election, taking the helm of a nation deeply divided after his predecessor's disastrous attempt to declare martial law. Lee won a thumping victory over conservative Kim Moon-soo, of disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol 's former party, with his term begining immediately after the National Election Commission certified the vote tally early Wednesday. In a regular presidential election, South Korea allows for a months-long transition period -- but as Lee's victory came in a snap election after Yoon's impeachment, his term began right away. "The National Election Commission hereby declares Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party as the elected president," National Election Commission chairperson Roh Tae-ak said early Wednesday. Kim had conceded hours earlier, as final votes were still being counted. Official results showed he had no chance of winning. Lee assumes office with a bulging in-tray, from sluggish growth and a global trade war to mounting concerns over military ties between nuclear-armed Pyongyang and Moscow. He also faces the challenge of leading a nation still reeling from the turmoil sparked by Yoon's martial law declaration in December and the rise of the far right in its aftermath -- a development experts say has deeply shaken the country's collective sense of democracy. In a speech to supporters early Wednesday, Lee urged South Koreans to move "forward with hope and make a fresh start from this moment on". "Though we may have clashed for a while, even those who did not support us are still fellow citizens of the Republic of Korea," he said. He also promised to "pursue dialogue, communication, and cooperation" with North Korea, with whom the South remains technically at war, "to find a path toward peaceful coexistence and shared prosperity". Lee is expected to start his first day with a traditional phone briefing from the military's top commander, formally confirming the transfer of operational control of the country. He is then likely to visit the National Cemetery, a longstanding tradition observed by his predecessors, including Yoon. A modest inauguration ceremony will likely follow at the National Assembly -- the same site where Yoon deployed armed troops on the night he attempted to declare martial law. Blue House calling? It will be a muted affair with just a few hundred guests expected to attend, in contrast to the large outdoor events held after regularly scheduled elections, which often attract tens of thousands. The new leader will then head to the presidential office to begin naming key cabinet members. 05:36 Disgraced ex-president Yoon moved the seat of power from the traditional Blue House to a hastily-converted government building in Yongsan, which Lee has previously said he would not use. The focus will be on who is tapped to serve as presidential chief of staff, prime minister and director of the National Intelligence Service. The day is expected to end with a flurry of congratulatory phone calls from world leaders, with US President Donald Trump likely to be the first on the line. Trump's top diplomat, Marco Rubio, was swift to offer his own congratulations and voice hope for working with Lee, who previously has sought greater distance from the United States. Washington's alliance with Seoul was "ironclad", the US secretary of state said in a statement, citing "shared values and deep economic ties". For many voters, like Noh Min-young, 20, who spent months in the street protesting Yoon's martial law declaration, the election was a relief and would allow the country to get back on track. "I'm just glad now. There's no risk of the result being overturned, and the margin is enough not to lose momentum when it comes to clearing up the insurrection or implementing policies," she told AFP. But experts warned that Lee's success in this election -- after he lost to Yoon in 2022 -- was due as much to his rivals' failings as his own strengths, with Kim hampered by political infighting and a fractured right-wing vote, split by a third party candidate. Lee is also likely to herald a major shift in South Korea's foreign policy, Gi-Wook Shin, a sociology professor at Stanford University, told AFP. "Lee is expected to prioritize the alliance with the United States while simultaneously seeking engagement with both China and North Korea," he said. That marks a departure from the policies of predecessors including Yoon, "who largely focused on North Korea and the United States, respectively."
