MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador’s Correa re-elected; US dollar to remain as currency

President Rafael Correa on brink of history in Ecuador

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador claimed re-election victory Sunday minutes after the polls closed on Sunday, calling his apparent win “a day of joy” in which “we have made history”. He was quoted saying he would keep the US dollar as the country’s currency.

“We are here for the poor,” Correa said in concluding a news conference. “We will never fail you. We will never fail you.”

Exit polls showed Correa with more than 51% of the vote, comfortably leading former President Lucio Gutierrez which figured with 28% and banana magnate Alvaro Noboa with 11%. Opinion polls leading to Sunday’s election anticipated Correa would win easily.

In order to avoid a runoff, a presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote, or take more than 40% of the ballots while beating the second-place finisher by 10 points.

Early results were not available in elections for the 124-seat National Congress, where Correa's Alianza Pais party was expected to do well and could win enough votes to control the legislative assembly.

Gutierrez, who served as president from January 2003 until fleeing the country amid a scandal in April 2005, declined to concede defeat and accused Correa of fraud.

He also indicated during a boisterous news conference he may run for president again in four years. “We must keep fighting for Ecuadorians who want liberty,” Gutierrez said. “I am going to continue fighting because we can't let our guard down”.

Noboa on the other hand admitted defeat and said that on Monday he would resume his activities in the private sector and continue to work to end poverty in Ecuador. He also underlined he is one of the three main leaders of the country.

Correa who came to power in 2006 enjoying historically high oil prices (the country’s main export), introduced the country's 21st constitution last year and more than doubled public expenditure in 2008.

A strong ally of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Argentina’s Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, Correa sent tremors to bond markets when he defaulted on interest payments for 32% of Ecuador's 10.1 billion US dollars in foreign debt.

Correa now faces a balance of payments deficit, deflated oil prices, a slowing of remittance flows from the US and Spain, and a lack of interest from foreign investors which had led many analysts to warn that Ecuador could be forced to abandon the US dollars as its currency, if it does not change tack.

However Correa reiterated Sunday, after exit polls, that his government will maintain the use of the U.S. dollar as Ecuador's currency.

“We have said that we will maintain the dollarization system, and as an economist I know how to do that,” he said. Ecuador turned to the dollar as its currency in 2000 following a harsh banking crisis