By Alexandra Valencia
QUITO/GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (Reuters) – Revolucion Ciudadana, the political party of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correaon Saturday selected former congresswoman Luisa Gonzalez as its candidate for the 2025 presidential election.
Ecuador goes to the polls on February 9, at the end of a shortened presidential term Daniel Noboawho was elected in 2023 for only 18 months after his predecessor called early elections to avoid impeachment.
Noboa, heir to a banana empire, was confirmed on Friday as his party’s candidate for the elections, which will also elect parliamentarians.
“Nobody wants things to continue like this for another four years,” said González after being elected as RC candidate at the party congress in Guayaquil. “Today is the time for change.”
Gonzalez, 46, is a former lawyer and politician who lost to Noboa in 2023 despite promising to reinstate her mentor Correa’s multimillion-dollar spending programs.
RC has lost two presidential elections in a row since Correa’s resignation. The former president lives in Belgium and was sentenced to prison for corruption, which he describes as political persecution.
Economist and former central bank governor Diego Borja will be Gonzalez’s candidate for vice president.
Since his defeat to Noboa, RC has become the young president’s biggest opponent, arguing that his plan to restore security has not been as successful as promised.
As part of his crime-fighting efforts, Noboa has declared a series of states of emergency and allowed soldiers to patrol streets and prisons.
According to government data, the number of violent deaths in Ecuador in 2024 through July fell by 19% compared to the same period last year.
RC has also made fighting crime a central campaign promise.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito; additional reporting by Yury Garcia in Guayaquil; editing by Rod Nickel)
