Businessman Guillermo Lasso is the new president of Ecuador
/ Our Today
administratorNation rejects decade-long socialist administration
Businessman Guillermo Lasso has won the presidency of Ecuador, as the nation has rejected the decade-ong socialist regime.
The conservative businessman Lasso was triumphant at the polls yesterday in an election held amid the rising coronavirus pandemic. The result has surprised analysts because the electoral campaign had pitted free-market economics against social welfare plans set out by the outgoing president, Andres Arauz.
Arauz, a protege of former President Rafael Correa was surprised at the loss.
Correa is currently hiding in Belgium, having been sentenced to imprisonment over kidnapping charges.
In a Twitter post yesterday, the incoming president remarked: “We will work together from now on for a true change. Today we woke up in peace and with the certainty that better days are coming for everyone.”
Lasso will now have to make friends on the opposition benches as his party did not win a majority on the floor of the parliament. Analysts say Lasso may find it extremely difficult to implement his economic reforms.
Arauz has conceded defeat and promised to support the new administration for the larger benefit of Ecuador. The South American country has been reeling from the effects of the pandemic.
Things have gotten so bad that the country’s economy is slipping deeper into a debt trap. Its debt-to-GDP ratio has now jumped to 63 per cent, as the economy contracted more than seven per cent.
Ecuador has lost nearly 18,000 people to coronavirus since the pandemic broke out in March last year. Its hospitals are still stretched to their limits, while the South American state is struggling to secure vaccines in the international market.
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