- Title: ECUADOR: VOTING OPENS IN THE FINAL ELECTORAL ROUND FOR A NEW PRESIDENT
- Date: 12th July 1998
- Summary: QUITO, ECUADOR (JULY 12, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV QUITO STREET SCENCES (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. SLV PEOPLE STANDING IN LINE TO VOTE 0.17 3. SV SOLDIER ON DUTY 0.20 4. SV VARIOUS OF PEOPLE VOTING (6 SHOTS) 0.41 5. CU ELECTORAL BOARD AT POLLING STATION 0.45 6. SV PEOPLE QUEING TO VOTE 0.48 7. SV LEADING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JAMIL MAHUAD ARRIVING TO VOTE/ VOTES (3 SHOTS) 1.04 8. SV PEOPLE CHEERING MAHUAD 1.09 9. SV MAHUAD WITH CROWD AND BABY 1.15 10. SV PRESIDENT FABIAN ALARCON ARRIVING TO VOTE. 1.22 11. SV ALARCON CASTS VOTE (4 SHOTS) 1.45 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 27th July 1998 13:00
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- Location: QUITO, ECUADOR
- City:
- Country: Ecuador LATIN AMERICA
- Reuters ID: LVA9TXWQHP51RA8UI3RP6LSVTJUI
- Story Text: Voting has opened in Ecuador in the country's decisive final electoral round for a new president.
Ecuadorans lined up outside elections polling stations on Sunday (July 12) to decide between the two leading candidates from the first round held last May.
Leading presidential candidate, Quito mayor Jamil Mahuad, was greeted by supporters as he cast his vote in the decisive battle.
A poll of voters on Thursday gave Mahuad 45 percent support compared with 33 percent for Noboa.Others said they were undecided or were not supporting either candidate.
But Noboa, a banana magnate, insists his own polls give him 45 percent support and Mahuad, 40 percent.
Noboa said he feared the election would be twisted by fraud, which he claims marred the first-round vote on May 31 in which he won 27 percent to Mahuad's 35 percent.
Mahuad said Noboa has resorted to mudslinging.Noboa forced Mahuad to admit this week he had a 10-year-old son from an extra-marital affair and has also accused the Quito mayor's brother of links to drug trafficking.
Mahuad, who enjoys the backing of much of the business community, plans harsh economic medicine to revive Ecuador's economy.The populist Noboa is promising jobs and higher wages to Ecuador's poor -- most of the population of 11.9 million.
Ecuador's never-prosperous economy has been severely damaged by El Nino and the steep fall in world oil prices.
Mahuad says Noboa is a puppet of eccentric former President Abdala Bucaram, fired by Congress in February 1997 for "mental incompetence." Bucaram -- who revels in the nickname "El Loco" or "The Crazy One" and lives in exile in Panama to avoid corruption charges in Ecuador -- says he will sue Mahuad for campaign advertisements comparing him and his relatives to the oddball characters of television's "The Adams Family." A poll published in Hoy newspaper on Friday showed 66 percent of Ecuadoreans thought voters would prefer to stay at home on Sunday and watch the World Cup final rather than go to vote.Officials urged citizens to vote in the morning to avoid any conflict with the game in France, which starts at 2 p.m.
local time (1900 GMT) -- three hours before the polls close.
To ensure that electoral officials do not try to sneak off and watch the match, televisions will be allowed at polling stations, Electoral Tribunal president Patricio Vivanco said.
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