Reply #6: Ecuador's Correa headed for easy re-election

[Judi Lynn]

Ecuador's Correa headed for easy re-election
By GONZALO SOLANO Associated Press Writer © 2009
April 26, 2009, 11:34PM

QUITO, Ecuador — President Rafael Correa, a leftist economist who has championed the poor and alienated international investors, appeared headed for easy re-election Sunday in a break with Ecuador's history of political instability.

Partial unofficial results accounting for more than three-quarters of ballots cast showed Correa winning more than half the vote in an eight-candidate field, making him the first president elected in Ecuador in 30 years without a runoff.

Correa, who vowed to rid the small Andean nation of its corrupt political class when first elected, declared victory moments after polls closed. He sang his party anthem, danced and pumped fists with his close political advisers in his home city of Guayaquil.

"We will never defraud the Ecuadorean people," he told cheering supporters. "I think that's why we received such immense support. We've made history in a nation that between 1996 and 2006 never saw a democratic government complete its term."

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Voters at home and abroad on Sunday also chose a new 124-seat National Assembly — six seats of which will directly represent the Ecuadorean diaspora — as well as governors and mayors. Exit polls indicated Correa's Alianza Pais party and allies would win a majority in the new congress.

More:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/world/6394027.html