Following this past Sunday’s election day, the presidential race in Ecuador is heating up. Voters eliminated Christian conservative Cynthia Viteri (accused last week of election fraud) and three other candidates, and now two very different men are advancing to the run-off: one billionaire businessman (Álvaro Noboa) and one leftist Hugo Chavez ally (Rafael Correa):

According to data provided by E-vote, a company working with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Noboa has 26.78% of votes, followed by Correa with 22.43%, which means that both candidates will advance to the run-off.

In third place was social democrat León Roldós with 15.93% and, almost tied, populist Gilmar Gutiérrez wit h15.64%, while christian Cynthia Viteri had 10.38%. All three are eliminated from the race to the presidency.

Luis Macas, the only indigenous candidate, got just 2% of votes.

Rafael Correa — previously named as a favorite in polls — is alleging fraud again, after seeing that results are favoring his opponent, Álvaro Noboa. The president of the electoral tribunal counters:

“…fraud exists only in the imagination of those who want to see it,” and assured the public that elections were carried out with “absolute transparency.”

Let’s hope we don’t have another Mexico on our hands.

Meanwhile, some U.S. officials are convinced that Venezuela is financing Correa’s campaign because of his close relationship with Hugo Chavez. Opponent calls Correa a “communist devil”. As if all that weren’t enough, Noboa is being criticized by the Catholic church for using rosaries and crucifixes in his campaign acts, as well as giving away $500 checks and wheelchairs to disabled people at the events. Sounds a bit like our friend Laura.

Via / 20 Minutos and Yahoo! News