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 QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - One is a banana billionaire who hobnobs with the Kennedys and Rockefellers. The other calls himself a friend of Venezuela's anti-U.S. president, Hugo Chavez. On Sunday they square off for the presidency of Ecuador, a country whose last three elected leaders were driven from office by street protests.
Voters in this runoff election must choose between two populists from the right and left: Alvaro Noboa, whose promises include building homes at a pace of 34 an hour to solve the housing shortage, and Rafael Correa, a leftist economist who has rattled Wall Street by threatening to reduce payments on the country's $16.1 billion foreign debt.
A victory for Correa would tip Ecuador into the ranks of Latin American countries that have turned left in recent years. But with polls predicting a dead heat, and Correa claiming fraud even before the votes are cast, the nation of 13.4 million, three-fourths of them poor, could be in for a lengthy postelection stalemate.
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