Leftist candidate Rafael Correa was declared the winner of
Sunday's presidential runoff in Ecuador, leading conservative
tycoon Alvaro Noboa by a large margin, the Supreme Electoral
Tribunal said on Tuesday.
With 97.29 percent of the ballots counted, Correa has won 57.04
percent of the votes as against 42.96 percent by his rival
right-wing banana magnate, a member of the Renewing National
Institutional Action Party.
Analysts here said it was Correa's popular political
standpoints, the favorable political climate in Latin America and
his personal charisma that put the 43-year-old left-wing economist
on a fast track to the top job.
Popular political standpoints
In recent years, Ecuador has been mired in political instability
and waves of demonstrations, and the past decade has witnessed the
departure of seven presidents in the country.
While the South American country is rich in natural resources,
Ecuador's slow economic growth and the wide gap between rich and
poor, -- 60 percent of the country's population live in poverty --
have led to a major erosion of public confidence in traditional
political parties and calls for sweeping changes in the country
with new political leaders at the helm.
A leading figure in the rising left-wing, Correa founded the
Moviento Patria Altiva "i" Soberana (PAiS) in 2006, Correa emerged
as a representative of a brand-new political party with strong
voter support and as a fresh-faced outsider determined to reform
Ecuador's political system.
An economics professor before serving as economy minister, he
was opposed to neo-liberalism, and has promised not to sign a free
trade agreement with the United States. But he wants to set an
upper limit on external debt payments and to join the Latin
American integrationist movement.
Correa has also vowed to shut down the US military base in the
Ecuadorian port city of Manta when the lease expires in 2009. At
present, 400 US troops are stationed in the base.
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He is also pushing for the creation of an elected assembly that
would rewrite the constitution, as what was done in Venezuela.
Correa has also pledged to work out a new strategy on social
development, which includes making efforts to reduce high
unemployment rates and establishing social development funds.
Correa's election, therefore, is a choice made by the lower and
middle classes who vehemently call for social reforms.
Correa said his victory "is a clear message to our traditional
political class of the profound changes that our citizens want.
This country doesn't need being patched up."
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Favorable political climate in Latin America
In recent years, left-wing political forces have been growing in
Latin America.
Many Latin American countries are now ruled by left-wing
parties. These include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba,
Uruguay, as well as Nicaragua and Venezuela, where President Hugo
Chavez looks certain to win re-election on Sunday after eight years
in office.
The ruling leftist and center-left parties have gained credit
with the public, which will help boost public expectations for a
leftist party like Correa's.
Correa is just the one that describes himself as a "humanist,
leftist Christian" and a representative of the "new Latin American
left."
Personal Charisma
Born on April 6, 1963, Correa got a master's degree in economics
at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and a doctorate at
the University of Illinois.
From 1992 to 1993, he was director of administration for
educational projects at the Inter-American Development Bank. He was
economy minister from April to August 2005.
Flamboyant and eloquent, he is known as a "young face" and
"reformist" in Ecuadorian politics. He speaks French, English and
some Quechua, a major indigenous language in Ecuador.
The president-elect will take office on Jan. 15, 2007 on a
four-year term. Correa says his first move after being sworn-in
will be calling a national referendum, which is to elect a special
assembly that could rewrite the constitution and even shut down the
Congress.
That will lead to his head-on confrontation with the
legislature, which has dismissed Ecuador's last three elected
presidents, violating impeachment proceedings in the process, after
huge street protests demanding their ousters.
He will also face challenges from the traditional parties and
tackle the thorniest issues, such as poverty and unemployment.
(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2006)
