President Daniel Noboa, the youngest head of state in Ecuador’s history, was named a candidate for the February 9 presidential election on Friday, his party, the National Democratic Action (ADN), announced.

The leadership of the newly established faction unanimously decided, in the presence of Mr. Noboa, to name him as a candidate ahead of the elections early next year.

The current head of the “Growing Up Without Child Malnutrition” program, Maria Jose Pinto, was named as the vice-presidential candidate.

At the end of July, while no candidacy had yet been announced, a poll conducted by the Comunicaliza institute put Mr Noboa, 36, ahead with 32% of voting intentions, followed by former minister Gustavo Halch (15%) and the indigenous leader Leonidas Isa (4%).

The ADN party, founded ahead of the February election by Mr Noboa — the son of banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa, who has never been elected president of the country despite running repeatedly — also presented its candidates for parliament and parliament of the Andes (in addition to Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru participate in the latter).

Daniel Noboa, who says he is centre-left but is backed by right-wing forces, became president in November, ending the 18-month term of his predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, who called early elections to avoid impeachment by parliament, with background accusations of corruption.

In January, Mr. Noboa declared the country in a state of “internal armed conflict” after a powerful drug lord escaped from a prison in Guayaquil, sparking a wave of extreme violence.

Between Colombia and Peru, the two countries with the largest cocaine production in the world, Ecuador has become in recent years a hub of drug trafficking.

The homicide rate in the country registered a tragic record in 2023, reaching 47 per 100,000 inhabitants, while it did not exceed 6/100,000 in 2018.