Ecuador's polling stations closed at 5.00 PM Sunday, with exit polls giving banana magnate Noboa of the Renewed National Institutional Action Party (Prian) first place.

Television broadcasts said exit polls had given left-wing economics professor Correa, of the Moviento Patria Altiva "i" Soberana (PAiS), second. Neither had the votes needed to win the presidency in the first round.

Ecuadorians on Sunday turned out in droves to vote for their eighth president in 10 years, and the 41st since the nation became a republic in 1830.

In a poll conducted by Informe, Noboa had 28.5 percent, while Correa had 26.5 percent.

Pollsters Cedatos-Gallup gave Noboa 27.2 and Correa 25.5. A third poll gave Noboa 28.2 and Correa 27.1.

The surprise of the election was the 15 percent vote for Gilmar Gutierrez, the brother of deposed former president Lucio Guiterrez, standing for the Patriotic Society Party. Although not featured as a leading candidate in early opinion polls, he came in third.

Leon Roldos, of the Democratic Left Alliance Network, who most pollsters thought would come third, achieved fourth place with 13.6 percent of the vote.

The exit polls gave Christian Socialist Party candidate Cynthia Viteri fifth place with 10.8 percent. Other candidates won less than three percent each.

Ecuador's election authorities will publish official results, once 90 percent of votes are counted, at around 7.30 PM local time.

Ecuador has programmed a second round of the vote, between the top two candidates, on Nov. 26 if no candidate meets this criterion.

Ecuador's president will take power on Jan. 15 next year, inheriting a country that is rich in natural resources, but with 60 percent of the population suffering from poverty.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2006)