Ecuadorian leader confident of ruling party win in local polls

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa cast his vote Sunday in local elections, saying he was confident his left-wing ruling PAIS Alliance party would win, especially in key battleground Quito. Correa, voting at a school polling station in Quito, said the elections for regional and municipal leaders will bolster the " citizens' revolution" spearheaded by his government. "Today, the future of Quito will be decided," he told reporters, referring to the mayoral race. "We are very optimistic, we know that the people of Quito will consolidate their citizens' revolution." Some 11.6 million voters around the country were eligible to take part in elections for 23 provincial prefects, 221 mayors, 867 city councilors, 438 rural councilors and 4,079 neighborhood board spokespeople. The country's right-wing, according to Correa, was looking to win the capital's top job and begin laying the groundwork for unseating the current government, as has happened in other regional countries, such as Venezuela, with the help of the extreme right and foreign powers. At the polls, Correa was accompanied by his vice president Jorge Glas and his party's candidates for reelection: Quito Mayor Augusto Barrera, and Gustavo Baroja, the prefect of Pichincha province. Acknowledging late Saturday that the election for mayor of Quito would be a close one, Correa said his socialist reforms aimed to achieve "rapid and profound radical change, but peacefully." "Our best weapons are the votes, our soldiers are the citizens, " he said, touting the social and political transformations made during his seven-year administration. Thanks to those changes, he said, "we have gone from having the worst, most unstable and most disputed democracy in the region, to having one of the most solid, transparent and outstanding." Sunday's elections marked the 10th elections held during his term in office, Correa noted.