Exit polls show win for leftist
by Patrick Moser
November 27, 2006
LEFTIST economist Rafael Correa, a friend of Venezuela's virulently anti-US
president Hugo Chavez, won Ecuador's presidential election today, according
to exit polls.
On average, the three polls gave him a lead of 14.5 percentage points over
Alvaro Noboa, a folksy, conservative banana tycoon.
Ecuador's wealthiest man, Mr Noboa had earlier insisted he was headed to
victory and urged voters to ignore exit polls.
Mr Correa, 43, has stirred unease on financial markets with his calls to
renegotiate the country's debt and revise foreign oil companies' contracts
in Ecuador.
His friendship with Venezuela's Mr Chavez, and his determination not to
renew a lease for a US military base in Ecuador also have caused concern in
Washington.
Mr Correa, who once called George W. Bush a "dimwit", toned down his
criticism of the US President after trailing Mr Noboa by four points in the
first round of voting on October 15.
He said yesterday he wanted "the best possible'' relations with Washington.
He also emphatically denies any political ties with Mr Chavez, or that the
Venezuelan leader actively backed his candidacy, but makes no secret of
their friendship.
"I haven't spoken with President Chavez for five months,'' he said on the
eve of the election.
But, like his Venezuelan friend has done, Mr Correa said he would push to
create an assembly that would rewrite the constitution, and which his
critics say might dissolve the Congress.
A former finance minister who describes himself as a "humanist, leftist
Christian", Mr Correa says he is a representative of the new Latin American
left that offers an alternative to strict free-market policies he says have
proved a failure in Latin America.
Mr Correa saw his support rise gradually after the first round of voting,
eventually grabbing the lead from his conservative rival.
He had warned ahead of the election that his conservative had resorted to
electoral fraud and might try to do so again.
As the voting was still under way, Mr Noboa insisted victory was his.
Bible in hand, down on his knees and invoking God's name, the conservative
banana baron predicted victory by a large margin, and urged Ecuadorans to
pay no heed to exit polls he suggested were fixed by his rival.
"I am the president of labour, of the poor,'' the billionaire cried out at
the gates of a polling station in Guayaquil, the country's second largest
city.
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