The October 20 ballot saw former army colonel Lucio Gutierrez receive just over 20 percent of the votes, 3 percent more than his rival, businessman Alvaro Noboa. The two will face off in the second round of voting on November 24.

Gutierrez received the endorsement of Pachakutik, the largest party organized by Ecuador’s indigenous peoples. He had been among a group of army officers closely involved in the events following the mass popular rebellion led by those peoples who drove then-president Jamil Mahuad from power in 2000.

A spiraling economic crisis sparked the rebellion in January of that year. The banking system collapsed in 1998–99 as the largest banks in Ecuador went bankrupt, while rising unemployment and 60 percent inflation fueled massive protests. At the peak of the upsurge, thousands of workers and farmers entered the parliament building in Quito when Mahuad announced his decision to ‘dollarize’ the economy--replacing the country’s currency, the sucre, with the U.S. dollar at a rate of 25,000 to one, and thereby slashing already meager wages overnight.

Rejecting the course of outright repression, Gutierrez and other officers backed an interim triumvirate government that organized to hand power to Mahuad’s vice president, Gustavo Noboa.

Campaigning in military fatigues, Gutierrez states that he will "fight the oligarchists."At the same time, he says that he will negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $240 million loan that the current administration has been unable to secure, and will also maintain the dollarized economy.

Noboa, a banana tycoon with a business empire that includes shipping, manufacturing and an airline, charges that Gutierrez is linked to the Colombian guerrilla movement and will bring "communism" and "anarchy" to Ecuador.

In spite of Gutierrez’s assurances, reported Ecuadoran newspaper La Hora, the prospect of his election "generates anxiety in the markets," based on "doubts that he will carry out the unpopular terms of IMF loans."  
 
 
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