Polls show Correa set to become president of Ecuador

Leftist Rafael Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, looks set for a win over a pro-US banana tycoon in Ecuador’s presidential elections

A victory by Correa, a charismatic, American-trained economist who has rattled Wall Street by threatening to reduce foreign debt payments and oppose free trade efforts, would strengthen South America’s tilt to the left.

“We assume this triumph with deep gratitude toward the millions of anonymous hands that gave their money and persons, took time away from their children and jobs, to work for this citizen project,” Correa, 43, said.

But rival candidate Alvaro Noboa, a 56-year-old, Bible-toting billionaire, declined to concede defeat, saying he would wait for the official count to be finished.

With about 21 percent of the ballots counted, Correa had 65% compared to 35% for Noboa, according to Ecuador’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

Final official results may not be known until tomorrow.

The results were consistent with an unofficial quick count released shortly after polls closed that gave Correa 56.9 percent and Noboa 43.1 percent.

That count, by the election watchdog group Participacion Ciudadana, was based on a sample of votes from 1,607 voting stations that reflected voting in 80% of Ecuadorean territory.

Two exit polls showed Correa winning by a similar margin.

“I know in my interior that I won,” Noboa said in a television interview. “The electoral tribunal will give the official figure once it has finished the vote count.”

Correa has vowed to clean up corruption and early in the presidential campaign called US President George Bush “dimwitted”.

Correa won a place in yesterday’s runoff by pledging a “citizens’ revolution” against the discredited political system. He appealed to voters as a fresh face in a field of established politicians.

During the campaign, Correa called for Ecuador to cut ties with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He also wants to hold a referendum to rewrite the constitution to reduce the power of traditional parties.

Correa’s election would add another member to South America’s grouping of left-leaning nations, which already includes Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

Noboa had run an old-fashioned populist campaign, criss-crossing Ecuador, from its Pacific coast to the Andes and eastward to the Amazon jungle, handing out computers, medicine and money.