Voters in Ecuador are going to the polls in an election that is expected to see incumbent President Rafael Correa returned to office.
Opinion polls suggest Mr Correa has a comfortable lead ahead of his nearest rival, banker Guillermo Lasso.
First elected in 2007, the socialist leader is widely credited with bringing political stability to a nation that suffered decades of protests and coups.
But critics accuse him of being a dictator in the making.
The 49-year-old US-trained economist has been accused of implementing policies that have served to strengthen his hold on power and erode the influence of political opponents and private media.
But his so-called "citizens' revolution" has made him popular with many ordinary Ecuadoreans and has won him friends with other Latin American left-wing leaders.
'Sun King'During his six years in power, Mr Correa has expanded access to healthcare and education and improved thousands of miles of highways, creating many jobs in the process. Poverty rates have dropped significantly.
"For years, this country went from government to government," Lorena Morocho, a 33-year-old civil servant, told the BBC. "I don't like certain things [Correa] does, but he is a great leader. I am voting for a project of hope."
But critics say that, since coming to office, he has filled the courts and government positions with allies and stifled free speech by taking on the media.
They also complain he has restricted free enterprise with heavy taxation and regulatory changes and taken government spending to an unsustainable level.
Mr Correa is close to Venezuela and Cuba and has sought to establish ties with Iran and China. Last year, he upset the US, Britain and Sweden by granting asylum to wanted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
"I don't recognise the current Correa. He is a different person. He is not the friend I used to have, that I used to love like a brother," Alberto Acosta, one of the co-founders of the Alianza Pais governing party and now an opposition candidate, told the BBC.
"He controls everything. He is a sort of Sun King of the 21st Century," he said referring to France's King Louis XIV.
Since 2007, Mr Correa has re-written the country's constitution: a move that allowed him to run for, and win, a new term in 2009.
According to most pollsters, he is on course to win re-election in the first round of voting, with more than 50% of the vote.
He faces seven opponents but opinion polls suggest his nearest rival, Mr Lasso, only has some 20% support.
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