Voters in Ecuador are going to the polls to choose a new president and all members of the National Assembly. The country is reeling from the Covid pandemic, which has killed 15,000 people in the nation of 17m people. With the economy in the doldrums, many voters say they are more preoccupied with day-to-day survival than with politics. Nearly 50% remain undecided on who to opt for out of the 16 presidential candidates, one survey suggests. With so many candidates competing for the top job, it is looking unlikely that any of them will achieve either the 50% of the votes or the 40% with a 10 percentage-point advantage needed to win outright in the first round. The second round is scheduled to be held on 11 April with the top two candidates going through. The eventual winner will replace the outgoing president, the embattled centrist Lenín Moreno.Mr Moreno ran in – and won – the 2017 election standing as a political ally of Rafael Correa. But he later broke with the former socialist leader and steered Ecuador away from the left-wing alliances Mr Correa had formed with the leaders of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia and back to a more friendly relationship with the United States.(BBC)…[+]