Correa Claims Ecuador Victory... (leftist elections tactics, script)

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 27, 2006 | John Lyons

[CutePuppy]

After pulling ahead in the presidential campaign by focusing on centrist issues, Ecuador presidential candidate Rafael Correa said he would govern from the populist left if he were to win yesterday's election.

Mr. Correa, a 43-year-old economist, held a jubilant news conference claiming that exit polls showed he had won by a margin that gave him wide latitude to push a radical agenda. He vowed to renegotiate payments on the country's $16 billion of foreign debt and to scrap the constitution -- proposals that he barely mentioned during the final weeks of his campaign. He also reiterated his longtime opposition to a new free-trade pact with the U.S.

"This is a clear message that the people want change," Mr. Correa said. "This is a clear message to the traditional political class that there has to be change."

With 40% of the ballots counted, Mr. Correa had 68% of the vote compared to 32% for his opponent Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador's Supreme Electoral Tribunal said before dawn Monday. Final official results may not be known until Tuesday.

An unofficial quick count of the votes by election watchdog Participacion Ciudadana gave Mr. Correa 56.9% and Mr. Noboa 43.1%. The count was based on sample votes from 1,607 stations that reflected voting in 80% of Ecuador. The group said the margin of error was less than one percentage point.

Three separate exit polls gave Mr. Correa a lead of at least 13 percentage points, including one poll partly paid for by Mr. Noboa, who hadn't conceded defeat last night.

"There has been a scenario in which they are preparing to commit fraud," Mr. Noboa told dozens of his supporters in the coastal city of Guayaquil.

[CutePuppy]

Same leftist (and US Democratic Party) script and tactics everywhere of saying "right" things before elections, then going far left and disbanding the Constitution... and reliance on polls and "exit polls" to grab the power.

[2banana]

He vowed to renegotiate payments on the country's $16 billion of foreign debt and to scrap the constitution

Hello poverty, unemployment, misery, starvation, gulags, repression and tyranny...

[CutePuppy]

"There has been a scenario in which they are preparing to commit fraud," Mr. Noboa told dozens of his supporters in the coastal city of Guayaquil. He said he instructed his campaign chiefs "to go to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and demand that they open the ballot boxes to count vote for vote so there can be no doubt."

Mr. Correa, who came in second in an initial round of voting after once holding a large lead, was hoping for a comeback. To do it, he tacked to the center to win support from working-class and poor voters who had been uneasy with his self-described "revolutionary" agenda, including closing a U.S. military base in the country. Instead, he focused on run-of-the-mill issues like increasing low-cost housing and raising the minimum wage.

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A typical scenario indeed. We should be on alert as it's repeating everywhere, thanks in no small measure to the likes of Jimmy Carter and other so-called "elections observers"

[Brilliant]

Equador is and always has been a basket case. The people have the right to elect fools if they want. Just don't complain to us.

[philsfan24]

"Just don't complain to us."

you know they will

[Youngman442002]

I always thought Ecuador was a Central country.....no pun intended......really..