Ecuadorean leftist Rafael Correa, an admirer of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was headed for victory following yesterday's presidential run-off after promising broad reforms in the unstable Andean country.
Victory for Mr Correa would make him the country's eighth president in just 10 years and strengthen Mr Chavez's drive to challenge US influence in Latin America by forging an alliance of like-minded left-wing leaders.
The US-trained economist worrying both Wall Street and Washington, Correa said today the vote showed broad support for his proposals, including foreign debt reform, opposition to a US free-trade pact and constitutional changes.
"The people have given us a clear mandate, with the second largest margin in the last 30 years of democracy," Mr Correa told reporters in his tropical home city Guayaquil.
Initial election results showed Mr Correa had won 68 per cent of the votes while his conservative rival, banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa had around 32 per cent with almost half of the ballot boxes counted.
The partial results may not reflect a national trend as ballot counts often come in from smaller provinces and more populated areas at different times. But three exit polls showed Mr Correa with around 57 per cent.
The 43-year-old former economy minister, wooed Ecuadoreans with promises to thrash the political old guard many blame for failing to combat instability and poverty that afflicts more than half of its 13 million population.
But the charismatic outsider, who has few backers in the legislature, may clash with Congress over his plans to call a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution.
"We anticipate that the gridlock and confrontation between the executive and legislative will reach new heights under a Correa administration," Goldman Sachs said in a research note.
Ecuador, the world's top banana exporter and Latin America's 5 thlargest oil producer, has struggled to regain political calm after three presidents were toppled in less than a decade by congressional and popular turmoil.
Ecuador's last elected president, former coup leader and soldier Lucio Gutierrez, was toppled in April last year after street protesters and a hostile Congress accused him of meddling with the supreme court's independence.