Ecuador's Correa wins vote, faces tough task

QUITO, Ecuador, Nov 28 (Reuters) Ecuador's Rafael Correa, a leftist vowing to rein in political elites, has won Sunday's presidential run-off with 57 percent of votes after most ballot boxes were tallied, a top election official said today.

Correa, who calls Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez a close friend, says he has a strong mandate, but he could struggle to fulfill his reformist vows in a country where rebellious lawmakers have helped to oust three presidents in a decade.

His rival in Sunday's vote, Alvaro Noboa, a banana magnate who has run twice before for the four-year presidency, has refused to accept defeat and says he could challenge the election with a review of the ballots.

''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.

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 announcement is expected on Thursday.

With 95 per cent of ballot boxes tallied by today's afternoon, Correa had 57.2 per cent of the votes while Noboa had 42.8 per cent, according to electoral authorities.

Correa, a US-trained economist, had lured voters with his outsider message promising to take on discredited traditional political parties who many Ecuadoreans blame for the turmoil that toppled their last elected president in April 2005.

Ecuador's foreign debt plunged yesterday after initial results as Wall Street fretted over the left-winger's proposals to renegotiate foreign debt and oil contracts. Correa also opposes a US free trade pact and a local US military base.

The Andean country's bonds were stable today after plummeting 4.5 per cent the previous session.

Correa today said he would push for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution, which he says is needed to bypass a corrupt congress and curb political party influence in independent institutions such as the courts.

''It would be embarrassing that our political class insist people submit to their wishes,'' Correa said. ''We will talk to congress, but without giving up our objective, which is the constituent assembly.'' TOUGH TIMES AHEAD But with no congressional representatives, Correa could be forced to compromise or face off with hostile lawmakers from Noboa's Institutional Renewal Party for National Action, who hold 28 of the 100 congress seats and could form a conservative alliance with other parties, analysts said.

''Correa will be severely handicapped from the start,'' said Patrick Esteruelas in a report from Eurasia consultancy.

One opposition lawmaker on Tuesday called for a ''democratic resistance front'' against Correa in congress.

Correa's ties to Chavez and his leftist rhetoric have raised speculation, especially in Wall Street, that he may take Ecuador down the socialist path promoted by the Venezuelan leader who is locked in a ideological feud with Washington.

Chavez has applauded Correa's apparent victory as a blow to the United States and an addition to the alliance of left-wing leaders he says will counter Washington's political influence in Latin America.

But Correa, who studied in the United States and Europe, insists his government will not accept interference from Chavez and analysts debate whether he will take the more moderate line he espoused after narrowly losing a first-round vote.

Chavez used a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution, weaken congress and solidify presidential powers soon after his election. His ally, Bolivia's Evo Morales, has struggled with foes trying to block a similar assembly demanded by the indigenous majority to strengthen their clout.

''We are heading toward a confrontation,'' Adrian Bonilla, at Ecuador's branch of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences. ''But I don't know if congress will have the upper hand this time.'' REUTERS SBA BST0143