Rafael Correa, the left-wing presidential candidate in Ecuador, leads right wing rival by 37 percentage points with around 54 percent of the vote counted, the country's Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced on Monday.

Correa, a left-wing economist representing the National Alliance Movement, has 66.35 percent of valid votes compared with 33.65 percent, for Alvaro Noboa of the Renewed National Institutional Action Party, a banana magnate and Ecuador's richest man.

In terms of votes, Corea got nearly 2.24 million and Noboa, nearly 1.136 million; with just under 20,000 of the 36,613 ballot boxes counted. Four polls published on Sunday gave Correa the presidency by an average of 14 points.

The TSE began publishing results at 8:20 p.m. local time on Sunday, when the second round of the presidential vote ended. In the first round on Oct. 15, Noboa won 26.8 percent of the vote or over 1.46 million votes and Correa won 22.8 percent or nearly 1.25 million votes. There were 11 other candidates.

Noboa called for a recount as soon as preliminary results were published on Sunday.

On Monday Correas responded that the margin is so clear that it was pointless to demand a recount, and added that the request was an insult to the citizens who helped count votes. He said that the 800,000 vote margin is the largest second round margin since the 1979 face-off between Jaime Roldos Aguilera and Sixto Duran Ballen.

A total of 9.2 million Ecuadorians were registered to vote in the nation's 22 provinces and overseas to elect a president whose four-year term will begin on Jan. 15.

Source: Xinhua