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.
 
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."
 
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)