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Correa set to gain easy victory as Ecuador votes
Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:16am EDT
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By Frank Jack Daniel
QUITO (Reuters) - Grateful for welfare programs and firm leadership in one of South America's poorest nations, Ecuadoreans were expected to re-elect leftist President Rafael Correa on Sunday by a big majority despite a flagging economy.
A victory for Correa would confirm him as the most powerful leader in Ecuador's 30-year-old democracy and mark another boost for a generation of left-wing presidents such as Venezuelan Hugo Chavez who now govern most countries in the region.
Polling stations open at 7 a.m local time (8 a.m. EDT) across the volatile country of 14 million people known for its Galapagos Islands, Andean mountain hamlets and Amazon tribes.
Opinion polls this week gave Correa the support of over 50 percent, far ahead of his seven rivals. He needs to score more than 40 percent to avoid a runoff with the second-place candidate.
"Ecuadoreans will decide between a past of looting and injustice or a much more beautiful future of change," the 46-year-old told thousands of supporters at the close of a lively campaign in which the incumbent often burst into song.
A devout churchgoer whose mix of Roman Catholic morals with left-wing politics has proved highly successful, 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 top tribunal his allies will likely 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 Alvaro Noboa, who is in third place in opinion polls, told supporters at his final campaign rally on Thursday.
Voters are also electing members of the National Assembly and regional and municipal officials.
BOOSTING NATIONAL PRIDE
Government figures show the Belgian- and U.S.-educated economist has reduced poverty with pensions, free school lunches and a higher minimum wage.
He has fanned national pride by standing up to foreign interests in a country where many blame severe economic hardships on rapacious investors and multinational companies.
Correa is a risk-taker whose choice to default last year on $3.2 billion of debt he deemed "illegal" could backfire as oil revenues tumble, making it harder to borrow money to cover spending promises.
A little larger in area than Britain, Ecuador is a notoriously restless country where street protests toppled three presidents during economic turmoil in the decade before Correa took power.
Under Correa, the country has been much more stable, with left-wing activists who led protests that ousted former President Lucio Gutierrez in 2005 now working in the government. The opposition is divided and weak. Continued...
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