President’s Party Defeated in Ecuador

Voters dealt center-left President Rodrigo Borja Cevallos a political defeat in legislative elections Sunday, giving his rightist opposition potential control of Congress, according to early unofficial returns.

The victory by opposition parties is likely to bring an end to the political calm that has marked this small Andean nation in the last several years.

The conservative Social Christian Party of former President Leon Febres Cordero gained 11 seats and will control 18 seats in the 72-member unicameral Congress. The projections showed Borja’s Democratic Left party losing half of its 30 seats.

The elections are seen as a referendum on the first two years of Borja’s four-year term in office. His popularity has been undermined by his failure to keep a campaign promise to reduce inflation from more than 50% last year to 25%.