QUITO, Ecuador �� Ecuador's conservative presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso took a lead over Lenin Moreno in the country's election Sunday, in a tight race to succeed Rafael Correa, the socialist who has led OPEC's smallest member for 10 years.
Lasso had 53.02 percent of the votes, compared with 46.98 percent for Moreno, exit polls conducted by Cedatos polling firm showed after polls closed.
The Andean country's 12.8 million voters are choosing between former banker Lasso and Moreno, who was Correa's vice president from 2007 to 2013, at the end of a weekend of political unrest and protests in Venezuela and Paraguay. Streets close to the headquarters of the National Electoral Council in Quito were closed to traffic since midday Friday as security was increased around the compound.
Tensions escalated following the first-round vote Feb. 19 when it took the council three days to rule that there would be a runoff between Moreno and Lasso. On Tuesday, Lasso, his family, and supporters were pelted with vuvuzelas and other objects after watching the World Cup qualifier match between Ecuador and Colombia by people he later called "foreign mercenaries" hired by the government.
Moreno pledged to boost public spending on housing, tripling a monthly benefit to poor families to $150, and to build 40 technical universities. Lasso has focused on restoring freedom of speech and cutting taxes by $3 billion annually to boost job creation and foreign investment, which was largely absent from Ecuador in the past decade.
