ECUADOR: Candidate Rafael Correa is ahead in the early polls in the run-off for Ecuador's eighth presidential election in a decade

Ecuador's leftist Rafael Correa, an ally of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, was heading for victory after Sunday's (November 26) run-off for the country's eighth presidency in a decade, three exit polls showed. An election victory by the former finance minister Correa would bolster Chavez's campaign to unite left-wing Latin American governments in a turf war to counter U.S. influence and free-trade policies with his own brand of socialist proposals. Correa, a U.S.-trained economist who worried Wall Street with talk of debt renegotiation, had marketed himself as an outsider to woo Ecuadoreans frustrated with poverty and years of instability in the world's top banana exporter. A Cedatos-Gallups poll and an independent poll carried out for local Teleamazonas television showed Correa with around 57 percent of the vote while Noboa had around 43 percent. A survey carried out by local firm Market for a regional channel showed Correa with 57.9 percent to Noboa's 42.01 percent. "I just want to serve, serve, serve the Ecuadorean people," Noboa said with a Bible in his hand after bodyguards guided him through a crowds outside a polling station in Guayaquil. Meanwhile, Correa arrived to Guayaquil after casting his vote in Quito to accompany his elderly mother to vote. He was greeted by throngs of supporters. "Before we saw him on his feet with his teeth showing and now he is on his knees crying tears of blood," Correa said, reacting to Noboa kneeling with a bible before casting his ballot. Correa, 43, rattled Washington with vows to oppose a U.S. free trade pact and a local U.S. military base. Noboa, a banana magnate, had promised closer U.S. ties and market-friendly policies to draw investment. While campaigning for the second round, Correa toned down his aggressive calls to dissolve the discredited Congress and take on Ecuador's political elite, which worried many centrist voters looking for more stability. He had been rewarded with a steady rise in the polls. Noboa, 56, whose family made a fortune from bananas, lured voters with a populist campaign mixing handouts of cash, wheelchairs and computers with religion and offers of jobs and 300,000 houses a year for the poor. The tycoon, who hobnobs with the world's jet set, was on his third run at the presidency and said he experience running businesses ranging from coffee to construction would help him manage the economy. After 1999 debt default crisis and street protests by Indian leaders earlier this year, voters were debating which candidate offered remedies to the political turmoil that has forced out three presidents in the last 10 years. Political analysts said Noboa's Institutional Renewal Party for National Action will manage to forge a majority alliance in Congress after his lawmakers won 28 out of 100 seats in October's legislative election. That could make it difficult for Correa to push through his promised reforms if official results confirm his victory. Correa has no representatives in congress and an inexperienced political movement. Ecuador's last elected president, former coup leader and soldier Lucio Gutierrez, was toppled in April last year by street protests and lawmakers who charged him with meddling with the independence of the Supreme Court. Ecuadoraian presidential candidate Rafael Correa is ahead in the early polls in the run-off for the country's eighth Presidential election in a decade. Initial official results will be announced later on Sunday.

ITN Source | November 27, 2006

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