- Title: Ecuador prepares for weekend run-off vote
- Date: 31st March 2017
- Summary: GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR (FILE) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF LASSO SURROUNDED BY CROWD GIVING THUMBS UP VARIOUS OF LASSO SIGNING A BOOK IN HIS OFFICE LASSO SHOWING FAMILY PHOTOS
- Embargoed: 14th April 2017 17:23
- Keywords: Ecuador elections Lenin Moreno Guillermo Lasso
- Location: PORTEVIDEO AND CUENCA AND QUITO AND MACHALA AND GUAYAQUIL AND LATACUNGA AND SANTA ELENA, ECUADOR
- City: PORTEVIDEO AND CUENCA AND QUITO AND MACHALA AND GUAYAQUIL AND LATACUNGA AND SANTA ELENA, ECUADOR
- Country: Ecuador
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA0076AAKNYB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Ecuador prepares for a run-off presidential election on Sunday (April 2), in which voters will chose between continuing a decade of leftist rule or following several South American nations in shifting towards a more pro-business government as a commodities boom ends.
Outgoing leftist President Rafael Correa has endured for ten years as Ecuador's leader, winning re-election twice. But despite his popularity, after recent major losses for Latin America's leftist bloc, Ecuador's election is being scrutinised for a potential further setback as the end of a regional commodities boom and corruption scandals fuel voters' desire for change. Lenin Moreno, 64, a paraplegic former vice-president and longtime Correa ally, just missed the minimum threshold to win the presidency in the first round in February, and latest polls show him narrowly beating conservative rival Guillermo Lasso this time around.
Moreno, who uses a wheelchair since being shot during a robbery in 1998, has promised to boost social benefits to single mothers, pensioners and disabled Ecuadoreans.
Lasso, a 61-year-old former head of Banco de Guayaquil who has campaigned on boosting jobs, retorts Moreno is recklessly over-promising considering Ecuador's highly indebted economy. Lasso ran for president against Correa in 2013, but came in second with 23 percent to Correa's 57 percent in the first round.
Ecuador's deteriorating economy - it fell into recession last year after posting more than 5 percent growth multiple times during Correa's period in office - is expected to play to Lasso's favour.
Some 12.8 million Ecuadoreans will vote to elect a president and 137 lawmakers for a four-year period. The new president will take office on May 24 for a four-year term. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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