Ecuadoreans Choose a Conservative to Succeed Left-Leaning President
Voters elected Sixto Duran as president Sunday, choosing the Boston-born former mayor of Quito to succeed Ecuador’s leftist president and bring on free-market reform.
The conservative Duran, an architect, will replace President Rodrigo Borja, who was constitutionally prohibited from serving a second term. Borja is one of Latin America’s few remaining defenders of heavy state control of the economy.
After the results were announced, Duran’s supporters poured into the streets in horn-honking victory caravans.
Exit polls by a network of broadcasters and national newspapers gave Duran 56.4% of the votes to 43.6% for Jaime Nebot, 45, a former state governor from Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city.
Duran, 70, is the fourth president since this nation of 10 million people returned to democracy in 1979 after a decade of dictatorship. He is scheduled to take over Aug. 10 for a four-year term.
Official returns will not be available for several weeks.
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