Ecuador Faces Election Run-off

A charismatic leftwing outsider and a banana tycoon looked last night to be heading for a run-off election to decide who will become Ecuador's next president as exit polls showed neither of them gaining the required votes to win outright.

Rafael Correa, 43, was the early frontrunner yesterday in opinion polls after running a deft campaign that attacked the Bush administration and praised Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez.

But Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador's wealthiest man who made his fortune in fruit, gained momentum in the final weeks of campaigning with his populist, free-market platform.

Mr Noboa won between 27-29% of votes while Mr Correa won 25-27% after a first round election, according to two leading pollsters, Informe Confidencial and Cedatos Gallup.

Mr Correa, a former finance minister and university professor, has promised to usher in a citizens' revolution to help the poor, squeeze foreign oil companies and be a thorn in the side of the "tremendously dimwitted" US president, George Bush.

The sense of drama heightened when two earthquakes shook the capital, Quito, yesterday, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.