Leftist vies with ex-banker in Ecuador polls

Quito: Ecuadoreans were voting yesterday in a nail-biter presidential election where an ally of leftist President Rafael Correa hopes to clinch enough support to avoid a runoff against a conservative ex-banker.
Lenin Moreno, 63, a disabled former vice president, needs 40 percent of valid votes and a 10 percentage point difference with his nearest rival to avoid a second round on April 2 and continue a decade of left-wing rule in the Andean country.
He looked close in an early February poll, with an estimated 38.6 percent of valid votes versus 25.7 percent for his nearest challenger Guillermo Lasso, a 61-year-old former president of Banco de Guayaquil, according to pollster Cedatos.
If Moreno is forced into a second round, analysts expect Ecuador’s fractured opposition to coalesce around Lasso amid an economic downturn and corruption scandals in OPEC’s smallest member state.
That would further bolster the right in South America, after Argentina, Brazil and Peru all shifted away from leftist rule in the past 18 months as a commodities boom ended.
Still, Ecuador’s ruling Country Alliance party remains popular with many poor in the country, home to volcano-topped Andean plateaus, lush jungles and the Galapagos Islands.
“We need minimal changes only, and that this work continue,” said Eulalia Imbaquingo, 42, an accountant who voted for Moreno in the mountainous capital Quito.
Moreno, who lost use of his legs two decades ago after being shot during a robbery, has a more conciliatory style than the fiery Correa and has promised benefits for the disabled, single mothers, and the elderly.
But the economy is weighing heavily on voters.
Unemployment is running high, the middle class is upset over tax hikes, and corruption scandals at state-run oil company PetroEcuador and Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht have outraged many.
“I hope the next president isn’t such a thief, so shameless,” said Eduardo Arrieta, a 26 year-old insurance worker who declined to identify his candidate. “The situation must change so that the country advances because we can’t live with this economic crisis.”
Lasso has campaigned on a platform to revive the economy, which is dependent on exports of oil, flowers, and shrimp, by slashing taxes, fostering foreign investment, and creating 1 million jobs in four years.
He has also vowed a clean break with Correa’s foreign policy. He would remove Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from the country’s embassy in London by late June and take a firm stance against Venezuela’s socialist government.
Polls close at 2200 GMT and preliminary results are expected to trickle in throughout the evening.