QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Poll results released Monday showed banana magnate Alvaro Noboa slightly ahead of or in a virtual tie with former President Rodrigo Borja in Ecuador's presidential race.
Support for Noboa, who is not related to current President Gustavo Noboa, fell from 23 percent almost three weeks ago to 19 percent, according to Informe Confidencial polling firm.
Meanwhile, Borja's support rose from 13 percent to 15 percent in polling three weeks before Ecuadoreans vote on Oct. 20.
Informe Confidencial surveyed 4,340 people on Sept. 28. The results had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Market and Cedatos-Gallup polling firms put Noboa and Borja in a statistical dead heat, leading the pack of nine other candidates.
Market showed Borja with 16.7 percent and Noboa with 14.5 percent — a virtual tie after taking into account the survey's 3 percentage-point margin of error. Market polled 2,560 people between Sept. 27 and Sept. 28.
In Cedatos-Gallup's polling, Noboa garnered 17 percent of the intended vote and Borja had 16 percent, with a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points. That survey questioned 2,000 people on Sept. 28.
Noboa, a multimillionaire with wide-ranging business interests, lost the presidency in 1998 after forcing Jamil Mahuad into a second round.
Borja, a centrist, was president from 1988 to 1992.
Former Vice President Leon Roldos, former army colonel and coup leader Lucio Gutierrez and right-wing politician Xavier Neira formed a second bloc of candidates, getting between 12 percent and 9 percent in various polls.
If no candidate wins an outright majority, the top two finishers will compete in a Nov. 24 run-off.
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