The former coup leader has won over poor Indians by wearing an olive-green uniform to remind them of his soldier days and vowing to end corruption, while promising to pay the foreign debt in meetings with bankers in a suit and a tie.

Now Gutierrez, a former amateur pentathlete who was elected Ecuador's president on Sunday, plans to hang the uniform in his closet, in favor of a more moderate image to keep those critics fearful of his coup-leader past at ease.

"Obviously I'm not going to be needing it any more. I'm going to put it away lovingly with the uniforms I used when I was in the military," a weary Gutierrez said as he declared victory after a long campaign, Reuters reported.

Wardrobe aside, Gutierrez carries his army days close to his heart. He joined the army at age 15 after growing up in Tena, a muggy jungle city on the fringe of the Amazon and proudly served as a blue-helmeted United Nations peacekeeper in Nicaragua a little more than a decade ago.

His military career was defined when he and his men swung behind an Indian revolt that overthrew elected president Jamil Mahuad in Jan. 21, 2000. The coup was built on a groundswell of anger behind a banking collapse and austerity measures.

Gutierrez, 45, briefly served in a junta, and then spent six months in jail when top army brass and congress appointed Mahuad's vice-president Gustavo Noboa as his successor.

He later quit the army, keeping his rank and quickly formed a political movement to catapult him into office.

"I want to create a different government so Jan.

21, 2000 becomes a historic reminder of what shouldn't be done to run a country, a bad memory of what a president should not do," Gutierrez said on Sunday night.

After coming a surprise first in the first-round presidential vote on Oct. 20, he embarked on a campaign to convince financiers that his leftist views or backing from radical parties and poor Indians would not hamper business or cause Ecuador to miss debt payments.

Gutierrez, who says he wants to form a national unity government with representatives of both right and left, insists he is a moderate. He flew to New York last month to soothe jittery investors over his rise, promising to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund and continue to use the U.S. dollar, which Ecuador adopted as currency in 2000.

--- Utopian and Peace-Loving --- A self-proclaimed idealist, Gutierrez has made the fight against corruption his battle cry in run-down city streets and poor Indian villages, where he campaigned in uniform and on horseback.

Dark, Indian features also increased his appeal in a nation where for centuries light skin has been almost a badge of rank, and his middle-class background won voters exasperated by years of elite rule. Many Ecuadoreans also admire his time in the army.

The colonel's victory comes as millions of poor voters in many parts of Latin America have abandoned traditional politicians in favor of leftists from outside the establishment who promise remedies for injustice, corruption and neglect.

Few expected Gutierrez, who is backed by native Indians, unions and a Maoist Party, to make it to Sunday's second-round vote, where he defeated Ecuador's richest man, Banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa, who is not related to the sitting president.

Noboa and some foreign investors compared Gutierrez to another former military man, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose government has been shaken by popular unrest, parallels the colonel has said hold few truths.

He indignantly dismissed Noboa's claims that he would become a military dictator and had mistreated his wife, a congresswoman-elect who stood by his side with one of his two daughters on Sunday after the results were announced.

Gutierrez, who often refers to himself in the third-person, said he forgave his opponent for any campaign insults and hoped his critics would join his ranks.

"Lucio Gutierrez continues to dream, and the more people that join that dream, the sooner it can become a new reality," he said.