Ecuador Internacional
Race to replace Ecuador’s Correa begins amid corruption scandal, uncertainty
Miami Herald 06/01/2017
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, right, embraces human rights activist and former vice president, Lenin Moreno, during the Alianza PAIS party convention where Moreno was tapped as the ruling party presidential candidate, in Quito, Ecuador, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2016. The elections for president and legislators are scheduled for Feb. 19, 2017. Dolores Ochoa AP
Ecuador kicked off its presidential campaign Tuesday amid a looming economic crisis, a lingering corruption scandal and a thirst for change that analysts say may hamper President Rafael Correa’s hopes of putting a successor into power to continue his “Citizens Revolution.”
Lenín Moreno, Correa’s handpicked candidate and one-time vice president, is leading polls ahead of the Feb. 19 race against a divided opposition. However, if he doesn’t win in the first round with at least 40 percent of the vote and a 10-point lead over his nearest rival, he’ll be forced into an April 2 runoff that could be tough.
“The government has to put all its meat on the grill for this first round,” said Sebastian Hurtado with the Quito-based political analysis group Profitas. If the opposition rallies behind a single candidate in the second round, “it will be much more difficult,” he said.
With South America shifting to the right in 2016 — sidelining leftist leaders in Brazil and Argentina — many are looking to Ecuador’s vote to see whether the trend continues. But the Andean nation, best known for the Galapagos Islands and being one of the world’s largest banana exporters, isn’t easy to define politically.
For the last decade, Correa, a charismatic, U.S.-trained economist with a penchant for bashing Washington and winning elections, has held sway over almost every branch of government. And despite his authoritarian streak, he’s been praised for making the nation more inclusive and revitalizing the country’s infrastructure: building hospitals, roads and schools that are the envy of the region.
Mild-mannered Moreno, 63, who has used a wheelchair since a botched robbery in 1998, is running on a platform of continuing his boss’ policies. And, so far, the promise is working.
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