Correa wins Ecuador's presidential vote-official

QUITO, Ecuador, Nov 28 (Reuters) Ecuador's leftist Rafael Correa has won Sunday's presidential run-off election after winning 57 percent of votes with almost all ballot boxes counted, a top electoral court official said today.

''Rafael Correa is the new president of Ecuador. The trend is not going to change,'' Narciza Subia, one of seven Supreme Electoral Tribunal judges, told Reuters.

With 95.35 per cent of ballot boxes nationwide tallied, Correa had 57.2 per cent of the vote while his conservative rival, banana magnate Alvaro Noboa, had 42.8 percent, according to election authority tallies.

Noboa, Ecuador's wealthiest man who has run twice before for the presidency, has refused to accept defeat and says he could challenge the election with a review of the ballots.

Two other election judges confirmed that the trend favoring Correa could not be reversed, but said the candidate would not be officially named president-elect until tallies were completed.

The official announcement is expected on Thursday.

Correa lured voters with his outsider message promising to take on discredited traditional political parties who many frustrated Ecuadoreans blame for the instability that has toppled three presidents in the last decade.

Ecuador's foreign debt plunged on Monday after initial results as Wall Street fretted over left-winger Correa's proposals to renegotiate foreign debt and oil contracts.

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