Ecuadorean presidential candidates, Mr Jamil Mahuad and Mr Alvaro Noboa, plunged straight into campaigning yesterday for a run-off election in July after exit polls showed them leading in Sunday's first-round vote.
Media exit polls gave the mayor of Quito, Mr Mahuad, between 31 and 36.7 per cent of the vote and the banana magnate, Mr Noboa, 28 to 29.8 per cent, both well short of the 50 per cent needed for a first-round victory.
A July 12th runoff had been widely predicted in the contest to replace the Andean nation's caretaker leader, President Fabian Alarcon.
The winner of July's vote will inherit a country ravaged by El Nino storms and economic chaos, which the last elected president, Mr Abdala Bucaram, tried to right with austerity measures that cost him his position.
Mr Alarcon has not offered Ecuador's 11.9 million inhabitants much more hope. Inflation this year is expected to be 40 per cent and Mr Alarcon has also adopted unpopular austerity plans.
His attempts at privatisation have failed and Ecuador is feeling the impact of worldwide drops in the price of oil, the mainstay of its economy, and bananas, shrimps, cocoa and coffee.