QUITO – Grateful for welfare programmes and firm leadership in one of South America’s poorest nations, Ecuadoreans were expected to re-elect leftist president Rafael Correa by a big majority yesterday despite a flagging economy.
A victory for Mr Correa would confirm him as the most powerful leader in Ecuador’s 30-year-old democracy. It would also be a boost for the generation of left-wing presidents such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela who now govern most countries in the region.
Polling stations opened at 7am local time yesterday across the volatile country of 14 million people.
Opinion polls last week gave Mr Correa support of more than 50 per cent, far ahead of his seven rivals. He needs to score more than 40 per cent to avoid a run-off with the second-place candidate.
“Ecuadoreans will decide between a past of looting and injustice or a much more beautiful future of change,” Mr Correa (46) told thousands of supporters at the close of a lively campaign.
A devout churchgoer whose mix of Catholic morals with left-wing politics has proved highly successful, Mr Correa vows to protect the poor from the global financial crisis and treat foreign companies with a firm hand.
Critics say he is running roughshod over Ecuador’s democratic institutions, having rewritten the constitution and formed a new tribunal his allies are likely to dominate.
“You are bowing your head to a tyrant, and I am not going to allow that, I want to return dignity and pride to Ecuador,” banana mogul Álvaro Noboa, in third place in opinion polls, told supporters at his final campaign rally.
Voters were also electing members of the national assembly and regional and municipal officials.
Government figures show Mr Correa, a Belgian- and US-educated economist, has reduced poverty with pensions, free school lunches and a higher minimum wage. He has also fanned national pride by standing up to foreign interests in a country where many blame severe economic hardships on rapacious investors and multinational companies.
Mr Correa is a risk-taker whose choice to default last year on $3.2 billion (€2.4 billion) of debt he deemed “illegal” could backfire as oil revenues tumble, making it harder to borrow money to cover spending promises.
Under Mr Correa, the country has been much more stable, with left-wing activists who led protests that ousted former president Lucio Gutiérrez in 2005 now working in the government. The opposition is divided and weak.
– (Reuters)