Ecuador’s vice-president, Verónica Abad, has accused the country’s president – her former running mate Daniel Noboa – of “violating the democratic code” by using the state apparatus to gain an advantage over the other candidates in the country’s runoff election.
In Sunday’s vote, the rightwing incumbent defeated the leftist Luisa González by a considerable margin after narrowly beating her in the first round.
Although Abad said she did not support the opposition’s claim that electoral fraud occurred during the vote, she argued that the election was unfair because Noboa refused to step down from office while running – as required by the constitution.
Abad and Noboa used to be allies when they ran together in the 2023 snap election for an 18-month interim term, but she was not part of the current president’s re-election ticket.
They stopped speaking even before taking office, and she claims the president has since then taken successive steps to sideline her – actions she describes as “gender-based political violence”.
Abad said she still did not know the reason for the sudden rupture, after which Noboa immediately sent her to Israel to serve as a “peace envoy”.
“I’m the mother of a minor and another son who is in university, and I had to make my move in just seven days to ‘avoid the escalation’ of the conflict between Israel and Palestine – a war that wasn’t ours. It was completely illogical,” she said.
He later appointed her chargé d’affaires in Turkey.
Abad claims that Noboa’s main goal was to prevent her from assuming the presidency during this year’s campaign.
Despite Noboa’s refusal to step down, Ecuador’s electoral authorities allowed the election to go ahead.
After a tight first round in which he edged out González by fewer than 17,000 votes, Noboa won the runoff by nearly 1.2 million – a result that no opinion poll had predicted.
González has called for a recount, but observers sent by the European Union and the Organization of American States said that, although there was an “imbalance” and “conditions of inequity” between the candidates, there was no indication of fraud.
Shortly before the second round, however, Noboa announced $560m (£423m) in bonuses and social aid packages for seven different population groups, including police and military personnel, farmers, and young people aged 18 to 29.
“Noboa designed a system of cash transfers – a clientelist policy tactically aimed at the social and electoral segments where he needed to mobilise votes,” said Luis C Córdova-Alarcón, a political violence researcher and professor at the Central University of Ecuador. “That’s how you can begin to understand where that one million-vote lead came from,” he said.
Córdova-Alarcón said there were two other contributing factors in Noboa’s victory.
The first was the lingering memory of the 10-year presidency of Rafael Correa – González’s political mentor – a period marked by social advances thanks to a commodity boom, but also by corruption and accusations of creeping authoritarianism.
The second was the fact that what was once one of the safest countries in Latin America has, in recent years, recorded the region’s highest homicide rate – a crisis that Noboa’s declared “war on drugs” in January 2024 has failed to resolve.
Noboa’s disregard for the constitution and the numerous human rights violations committed by his mano dura (iron fist) offensive earned the president mounting accusations of authoritarianism.
Córdova-Alarcón said the outlook was only likely to worsen. “Given the context in which this election has taken place, Noboa has no incentives to change,” he said.
Abad said that although she still fears for her life due to her public disputes with Noboa, she hoped that he “has learned to listen and can fulfil his promises because the problems haven’t gone: we still face sky-high insecurity, a struggling economy, and widespread poverty”.
In March, the electoral court suspended her political rights for allegedly committing “gender-based political violence” against Noboa’s foreign minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld, by accusing her of persecution. Meanwhile, Abad’s complaints against Noboa have gone nowhere.
Noboa’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, but at a campaign event in late March, the president referred to Abad as “a traitor who’s already been dismissed”.
Officially, she remains Ecuador’s vice-president until 24 May, when Noboa begins his new term with businesswoman María José Pinto as his second-in-command.
“Until 24 May and beyond, I will continue to fight for my rights because, in the end, it sets a precedent for those women who will occupy this position,” said Abad.
