QUITO, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Leftist candidate Rafael Correa claimed victory in Sunday's presidential runoff in Ecuador after three exit polls and a quick count of votes showed he was enjoying a comfortable majority in the race. The unofficial quick count on sample votes from 1,607 of all the 36,000 voting stations nationwide showed the former financial minister won 56.3 percent of the votes, while his major rival, banana magnate Alvaro Noboa, got 43.1 percent. It was conducted by the citizens election watchdog group Participation Ciudadana, who said the margin of error of its count was less than one percentage point.
Two exiting polls by the Teleamazonas television and Participation Ciudadana showed Correa won 57 percent of the votes, while Vozy Voto television's poll gave him 58 percent.
The official result is expected later on Sunday published by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
