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Ecuador holding mandatory elections to replace Correa

By Andrew V. Pestano
Election campaign posters for Ecuador's general elections hang along a street in Duran on Saturday. Ecuador is holding first-round presidential elections on Sunday to choose who will replace left-wing President Rafael Correa, who led the South American country for 10 years. Photo by Robert Puglla/EPA
Election campaign posters for Ecuador's general elections hang along a street in Duran on Saturday. Ecuador is holding first-round presidential elections on Sunday to choose who will replace left-wing President Rafael Correa, who led the South American country for 10 years. Photo by Robert Puglla/EPA

Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Ecuador is holding first-round presidential elections on Sunday to choose who will replace left-wing President Rafael Correa, who led the South American country for 10 years.

Lenin Moreno, Correa's former vice president, is expected to win Sunday's vote but not by enough to avoid a second round run-off vote. In Ecuador, candidates need to win 40 percent of support to avoid a run-off.

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Voting is mandatory in Ecuador. More than 12 million people are expected to cast ballots and the official results are expected early Monday.

"We are going to vote for real change that means we take the best and we make it even better," Moreno said in a statement ahead of the vote.

Moreno recently served as United Nations Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility. He became paraplegic after being shot in the back in 1998.

Moreno, who has distanced himself from Correa in recent years, is facing a strong challenge from Guillermo Lasso, a conservative who has vowed to reduce government spending and taxes.

"We have two options: More of the same or we can change. Vote for employment. Vote for change," Lasso said in a statement ahead of the election.

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Lasso, a center-right former banker, is running on a economic platform in which he promises to create 1 million new jobs within four years.

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