Ecuador leader cruises to reelection

April 27, 2009|Associated Press

QUITO, Ecuador - President Rafael Correa, a leftist champion of the poor, claimed victory yesterday just moments after the polls closed - a win that breaks sharply with Ecuador's history of political instability.

Three exit polls said Correa garnered well over half the vote in an eight-candidate field, making him the first president elected in Ecuador in 30 years without a runoff.

Correa, who promised to rid the small Andean nation of its corrupt political class when first elected in 2006, danced, sang his party anthem, and pumped fists with his close political advisers in his home city of Guayaquil.

"We will never defraud the Ecuadorean people," he told supporters. "I think that's why we received such immense support. We've made history in a nation that between 1996 and 2006 never saw a democratic government complete its term."

International observers reported no serious irregularities in the voting.

Exit polls done for state TV and two independent channels gave Correa at least 54 percent of the vote, with former president and coup leader Lucio Gutierrez a distant second.

The vote was mandated by the new constitution that strengthens the president's hand and makes him eligible to run in 2013 for another four-year term.