FACTBOX: Ecuador and its leftist president, Rafael Correa

(Reuters) - Grateful for a welfare system and firm leadership in one of South America's poorest nations, Ecuadoreans voting on Sunday were expected to re-elect President Rafael Correa by a big majority despite a flagging economy.

After more than two years in office, the socialist Correa has already outlasted his three immediate predecessors, who were all ousted by street protests and political turmoil.

Here are some facts about Ecuador and Correa:

* Taking its name from the equator it straddles, Ecuador is a volcanic country of poor Andean villages, remote Amazon tribes and bustling ports. The outlandish wildlife in its Galapagos islands inspired Darwin's theory of evolution.

* A little larger in area than Britain, Ecuador is the world's top banana exporter and is rich in copper and gold but its economy is driven mainly by oil exports and money sent home from immigrants overseas.

* Correa was born April 6, 1963, to a lower middle-class family in the port city of Guayaquil. He picked up an economics degree from the local university before winning scholarships to study in Belgium and the United States, where he received his doctorate in 2001.

* Correa has defaulted on billions of dollars of foreign debt he declared "illegal," expelled U.S. Embassy officials, and severed diplomatic ties with Colombia over a military raid. All those moves were applauded by most Ecuadoreans.

* A former economy minister, Correa has spent billions of dollars on social projects since he took office in 2007. In the first few months of 2008, his government invested $2.2 billion fixing schools, revamping hospitals and building housing for the needy, according to Finance Ministry data.

* Correa rarely shies from a fight. His no-nonsense style is popular among Ecuadoreans used to weak leaders bowing to foreign and domestic pressures.

* Ecuador adopted the dollar as its currency in 2000 during a financial crisis that thrust poverty levels to about 70 percent and prompted millions to leave for the United States and Europe.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Peter Cooney)