Ecuador voted Sunday in general elections that could see a pillar of the Latin American left swing to the right - and potentially deprive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of his place of refuge in London. President Rafael Correa, who is not running, expressed confidence that his party's candidate, Lenin Moreno, would win in the first round.
"They want to give the impression it's going to a second round. The polls clearly say the contrary," he said after casting his ballot at an elementary school in Quito.
"Let's await the results and, in a democratic spirit, accept the will of the Ecuadoran people expressed at the polls."
The vote puts Correa's legacy into question. He is marking the end of 10 years in power during three terms as one of Latin America's leading leftists and an outspoken critic of the United States.
It could also alter the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The two leading conservative candidates have said that if they win, they will evict him from Ecuador's London embassy, where he has taken refuge for fear of extradition to the United States.
An economist, Correa, 53, initially oversaw a boom in his oil-rich country of 16 million people. A decade on, "what is at stake are two visions of society, two visions of development, two visions of the state," he said of Sunday's election.
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