1992 Ecuadorian presidential election At the end of 1990 he publicly criticized the direction of the PSC in a public statement. In February 1991 he contested the internal elections for the party leadership, in which the Guayaquil faction (led by Febres-Cordero) succeeded in appointing Jaime Nebot as presidential candidate and national director. Durán-Ballén alleged irregularities in the election of party delegates, to no avail (and despite opinion polls reportedly giving him advantage over Nebot). As a consequence, Durán-Ballén and his supporters left the party to form the more right-wing Republican Union Party. This decision was widely popular as it was seen as breaking with the political establishment, even being compared with Peru’s Alberto Fujimori in the media. They subsequently entered into a controversial alliance with the Conservative Party. Eventually, Durán defeated Nebot in the second round of the 1992 presidential election. Tenure Durán-Ballén was inaugurated president on 10 August 1992. At age 71, Ballén was the oldest person to have served as president. During his time as president, he actively pursued structural reform to modernize the Ecuadorian state and cut down wasteful bureaucratic spending. During his presidency, Ballén lowered the Ecuadorian inflation from 67% to 24%. The result was a significant reduction of government deficits and a thriving private sector. Durán-Ballén also led Ecuador into membership in the WTO, with negotiations being led by his subsecretary of Foreign Affairs, Patricio Izurieta Mora-Bowen. The admission to the WTO had a significant impact on the nation's political institutions and export competitiveness. During his presidency, there was criticism towards Ballén's economic policies. Many analysts agree that all these actions carried out under his economic plan meant the prelude to almost absolute insolvency to which the country would arrive in 1998 with an external debt of 16.4 billion dollars. He also faced harsh criticism when he eliminated the External Credit Committee in 1995 and was accused of abuse and subjection to public indebtedness. In response to the corruption allegations against him, Ballén called for a second popular referendum to allow reforms as per modernization of the state, which were largely rejected. Ballén faced challenges while attempting to secure the modernization of the Ecuadorian economy from the World Bank. The World Bank insistent on the privatization of public services which resulted in the reduction of jobs, the elimination of alleged subsidies and the profitability of the Ecuadorian state management. In 1995, Ballén proved to be