Exit polls show leftist candidate Lenin Moreno leading Ecuador's presidential vote
Exit polls show leftist candidate Lenin Moreno leading Ecuador's presidential vote
Pablo Jaramillo Viteri, Chris Kraul
FEBRUARY 19, 2017 6:16 PM
REPORTING FROM QUITO, ECUADOR
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.
Moreno, 63, is a close ally of outgoing President Rafael Correa, under whom he served as vice president from 2007 to 2013.
Three exit polls showed him winning at least 36% of votes cast, ahead of apparent second-place finisher Guillermo Lasso, a pro-business bank executive who was winning at least 26%. The two led a crowded field of eight candidates.
To avoid a runoff, Moreno, who has spent the last three years as a special United Nations advocate for the disabled, needed either 50% plus one of all votes cast, or 40% if he finished at least 10 percentage points ahead of the next highest vote-getter.
More:
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-ecuador-election-20170219-story.html