washingtonpost.com – By Nick Miroff – QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador will elect a new president Sunday, in a vote closely watched across a region already simmering from street protests and heightened political tensions. The outcome is expected to be close, and observers fear a contested result that could trigger another South American crisis, after clashes in recent days in Venezuela and Paraguay. Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa’s decade in power has left the country sharply divided, and with his legacy on the line, his leftist government has thrown its full weight behind former vice president Lenín Moreno, 64.
Challenging Moreno with a cry for “change” is conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso, 61, whose campaign is betting that frustration over Ecuador’s sagging economy and Correa’s heavy-handed style will lift him to an upset win.