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QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's leftist Rafael Correa, an ally of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, was headed for victory after today's run-off for the country's eighth presidency in a decade, three exit polls showed.
Correa's rival Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador's wealthiest man, dismissed the poll results and said he believed he had won the second-round vote. He said he could demand a review of the ballots if necessary after official results are released.
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 US influence and free-trade policies with his own brand of socialist proposals.
Correa, a US-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.
"He has won the candidacy of the people," said Gustavo Larrea, the head of Correa's campaign and possible interior minister under his government. "We are on a new path and in a new moment."
A Cedatos-Gallups poll and an independent poll carried out for local Teleamazonas television showed Correa with around 57 per cent of the vote while Noboa had around 43 per cent. A survey carried out by local firm Market for a regional channel showed Correa with 57.9 per cent to Noboa's 42.01 per cent.
Initial official results will be announced later today.
Correa, 43, rattled Washington with vows to oppose a US free trade pact and a local US military base. Noboa, a banana magnate, had promised closer US 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.
- REUTERS
