Exit polls from Sunday's presidential election in Ecuador put the ruling party's Lenin Moreno ahead of the closest contender among seven opposition candidates, although it was unclear whether he had enough votes to avoid an April runoff. An ally of the outgoing leftist President Rafael Correa, Moreno had been leading in opinion polls and promised to continue the current president's programs "on tax-and-spend social policies." Government supporters said votes from pro-government provinces and Ecuadoreans abroad would propel Moreno, 63, past the crucial 40 percent mark. That would spare him a runoff that polls indicate he may well lose. With more than 81.4 percent of polling stations counted, ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno had almost 39 percent of the votes, compared to just under 29 percent for former banker Guillermo Lasso, the closest contender among seven opposition candidates. The president of the National Electoral Council, Juan Pablo Pozo, said it could take until Thursday for the full results to be confirmed. But the opposition candidate showed no sign of throwing in the towel, as hundreds of Lasso supporters gathered outside the National Electoral Council, saying they would remain there until a runoff was confirmed. Pozo urged voters to "wait peacefully for the official results, since there is a narrow margin to determine whether there will be a second round." Moreno called for his Country Alliance party to "cross our fingers" for a first-round victory. "I like big challenges, strong challenges, and I am going to get through this one," he said on television. But ex-banker Lasso vowed: "We will not rest until we achieve a definitive victory for the Ecuadoran people, who want change." Pozo said some of the ballots were taking time to be counted due to "anomalies" such as missing signatures from polling station officials. He said he would hold a meeting with the two candidates to explain the delay in confirming the results, "to avoid any suspicions." "Lasso has been out saying that he is very confident about a second round win, and he quite possibly has a point because the supporters of the six candidates that seem to be eliminated from the race are more likely to support the right-wing candidate," Schweimler said. "Any party could beat the governing one in the second round, because there is major resistance to, and rejection of, the government," said political scientist Paolo Moncagatta of Quito's San Francisco University. As results trickled in from Ecuador's Andes, jungle, and Pacific coast, Moreno, a disabled former vice president, was just short of the 40 percent of votes and a 10-percentage-point difference over his nearest rival to win outright. Former Vice President Lenin Moreno, a leftist advocate for the disabled who was paralyzed in a 1998 robbery attempt, topped the field in Ecuador’s presidential election Sunday, according to exit polls, but it was unclear whether his margin was large enough to avoid a runoff on April 2. If ex-banker Lasso wins the presidency, another pillar of the Latin American left will swing to the right. The result of the election could also change the future of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who has been living in Ecuador's embassy in London for five years, fighting extradition to Sweden on rape charges. One campaign promise from the two leading conservative candidates was to evict Assange from Ecuador's London embassy where he has taken refuge out of fear of extradition to the United States. The busting of a commodities boom has hastened the end of two decades of leftist predominance in Latin America. The outcome was indeed being 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. He initially oversaw a boom in the country of 16 million people, but the economy shrank 1.7 percent last year. "The big factor in the vote was the economic crisis," said Alberto Acosta-Burneo, a consultant at the Spurrier Group. Lasso slammed Correa's allies over alleged links to corruption. But Lasso has also alienated some voters who deem him a stuffy elitist linked to the 1999 financial crisis when hundreds of thousands lost their savings. Voters were deciding whether to continue Correa's tax-and-spend policies or give Lasso a mandate to cut spending and taxes. Correa used Ecuador's oil wealth to fund social welfare schemes and public works. But oil prices have plunged over the past three years. Teacher Sofia Tinajero, 32, said she ended her support for Correa's side in this election and voted for a change. "I have witnessed authoritarianism and a very great social decline," she said. But another voter, Nora Molina, 53, said "these past 10 years have shown how the country has advanced. I think we are going to keep that going."
A runoff presidential election, between former vice-president Lenín Moreno and former bank president Guillermo Lasso, is scheduled for Sunday, April 2 since no candidate gained at least 40 percent of the vote in Sunday's poll. With 95.3 percent of votes counted, Moreno received 39.21 percent of valid votes and Lasso had 28.34 percent.