Ecuador’s president-elect faces ‘titanic challenges’

Dire economy and deep political divisions complicate task for incoming leader Guillermo Lasso

Gideon Long in Quito

Self-made millionaire Guillermo Lasso may have pulled off a major surprise by winning Ecuador’s presidential election, but he faces huge challenges in governing a nation riven by political division, impoverished by a broken economy and devastated by coronavirus.

After Lasso, a former banker, achieved his surprise win on Sunday evening, thousands of his supporters poured on to the streets of upmarket neighbourhoods of Quito to celebrate.

“We’ve been waiting years for this,” said Janeth Jiménez, shouting above the din of car horns as she waved a huge flag emblazoned with Lasso’s name and face. “Hopefully with this victory we can finally pull our country out of the mud and turn it into what it should be — a normal, prosperous nation.”