Ecuador Goes to Polls
QUITO (Dispatches)-Ecuadorians are voting in the first round of elections to choose a new president.
Left-wing incumbent Rafael Correa is standing down after leading the country for a decade.
His former vice-president Lenin Moreno is expected to lead Sunday's vote, but is facing a strong challenge from conservative Guillermo Lasso, who has vowed to cut spending and taxes.
Candidates need to win 40% of the vote to avoid a second round run-off.
Polls suggest it will be a tight election, with no candidate likely to garner enough votes to win the first round. But a third of voters until recently were undecided amid low-energy campaigning as the charismatic Correa prepares to retire from politics.
Polling places opened without incident Sunday morning.
The outcome will be watched closely in Latin America, where conservative leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Peru have assumed power in the past 18 months after the end of a commodities boom that boosted leftists like Correa.
Left-wing incumbent Rafael Correa is standing down after leading the country for a decade.
His former vice-president Lenin Moreno is expected to lead Sunday's vote, but is facing a strong challenge from conservative Guillermo Lasso, who has vowed to cut spending and taxes.
Candidates need to win 40% of the vote to avoid a second round run-off.
Polls suggest it will be a tight election, with no candidate likely to garner enough votes to win the first round. But a third of voters until recently were undecided amid low-energy campaigning as the charismatic Correa prepares to retire from politics.
Polling places opened without incident Sunday morning.
The outcome will be watched closely in Latin America, where conservative leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Peru have assumed power in the past 18 months after the end of a commodities boom that boosted leftists like Correa.