Ecuadoreans vote for president in election marred by candidate's murder
By Alexandra Valencia and Julia Symmes Cobb
QUITO (Reuters) -Ecuadoreans were voting on Sunday to choose a president and legislature they hope will lead the country out of a spiral of violence and economic troubles after a campaign darkened by bloodshed.
Candidates have pledged to fight sharp increases in crime, which the current government blames on drug gangs, and improve the struggling economy, whose woes have caused an uptick in unemployment and migration.
Security has taken center stage in the contest since the Aug. 9 murder of anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio, a former investigative journalist and lawmaker who was gunned down while leaving a campaign event.
Six suspects, all Colombians police say belong to criminal gangs, were charged with Villavicencio's murder and are being held. Another suspect died from wounds sustained in a shootout with authorities.
Other candidates have reported attacks against them, although in several cases police have said that the violence was not directed at the hopefuls themselves.
Voters at the polls in Quito and Guayaquil said security was their major focus.
«First is security, and then the economy and jobs. Without security there isn't investment, there aren't companies, there aren't jobs,» said public employee Patricia Simbaña, who voted at an elementary school in the capital where Cristian Zurita, Villavicencio's replacement, cast his ballot amid a scrum of journalists and heavily armed soldiers.
Simbaña said she was voting for pro-market candidate Otto Sonnenholzner, who has hardened his discourse since the murder, repeatedly promising that criminals who use violence will be shot by police under his government.
«It's time now to act with a firm hand,» she said.
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