RE: ELECTION RESULTS COMING IN...PHOTOSEcuador press pleads for calm
Both candidates promise to create jobs and fight poverty
As Ecuadoreans go to the polls to vote for the next president, newspapers make a plea for calm in a country which has seen its fair share of political instability in recent years.
A dominant theme in several editorials is the need for the two contenders - left-wing Rafael Correa and conservative Alvaro Noboa - to respect the result and show the world that Ecuador has evolved into a viable democracy.
El Universo appeals to the many voters it believes will "cast their vote with a feeling of unease, with gritted teeth".
"We need to all make a special effort to realise how important it is not to get it wrong today... that's the first task.
"The other, equally important task is to accept the results in a manner which strengthens democracy, consolidates the system, and accepts victory with humility and defeat with maturity."
Hard lessons
"We are handing over a mandate, not special privileges," insists El Comercio, describing the election as "an exceptional moment in our country's democratic life".
Ecuador is identified as one of the continent's most unstable nations
El Comercio
It warns the two candidates "in case they haven't realised" that "there is grand national consensus over the need to recover the political and institutional stability of the republic".
El Comercio says the winner needs to be aware of the shame felt that "Ecuador is identified as one of the continent's most unstable nations, lacking in the requisite political respect".
It cautions that high oil prices and fiscal surpluses are no substitute for political maturity, recalling that "leaders and citizens alike made a mess of the last elections".
Democracy is being put to the test again
La Hora
"Let's hope we've all learned from such hard lessons."
Hoy describes the day as one of "transcendental importance for Ecuadoreans".
"The rules of democracy dictate that one or other will have to accept the popular will," the paper says.
It calls for calm to ensure "the ushering in of a new and positive stage in political stability, economic growth and social development for the benefit of all Ecuadoreans".
'Civic tragedies'
La Hora is particularly concerned at what it sees as "the civic tragedies" which have forced out of office a number of presidents in recent years.
It hopes that "political instability and ungovernability" will be a thing of the past, reminding the candidates that "whoever is elected will be the president of all Ecuadoreans".
Heightened passions displayed by the candidates must end today
Expreso
"Democracy is being put to the test again and today more than ever we must strengthen it with a vote of maturity with an eye to the future."
The Guayaquil paper Expreso remarks that "today culminates an arduous electoral process marked more by belligerence than by rational proposals".
It warns that "the heightened passions displayed by the candidates must end today".
"The people have the ultimate word, and this must be considered an unchallengeable verdict according to the norms of the democratic system."