by Our Foreign Desk

LEFT-WING candidate Lenin Moreno bucked the regional trend to the right in Sunday’s election for Ecuador’s presidency, taking victory by 51 per cent to 49 per cent.

His win was met by an extensively trailed demand for a recount by his defeated right-wing opponent Guillermo Lasso, but Mr Moreno insisted that he would proceed without delay with the transition from President Rafael Correa.

“It’s a decisive moment for the region because of the extreme right-wing’s reaction in recent years. Ecuadorean elections are very important,” said Mr Correa at a polling station in the capital Quito.

Mr Moreno was backed in the election by the ruling Pais Alliance set up by his predecessor. “It’s time for peace and union. Everyone will have a new opportunity and we will seek dialogue and harmony. Our hand is outstretched,” he said.

The president-elect, who has used a wheelchair since he was shot and paralysed during a robbery in 1998, is well known and respected for his advocacy work for people with disabilities and supporting state education.

He has pledged to continue and expand social programmes introduced by President Correa, whom he served as vice-president from 2007 to 2013, before working as the UN special envoy for disability and accessibility.

Initial allegations of fraud by Mr Moreno’s wealthy banker opponent sparked some street activity by his supporters, but the hollowness of the claims and public awareness that he would brandish such charges if defeated robbed the protests of momentum.

The election was overseen by Union of South American Nations observers headed by former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, who confirmed that the voting had been transparent. Foreign Minister Guillaume Long called the result “a positive endorsement of our plan to create a more equal Ecuador.

“We have made great strides in social progress in the past decade and we will now continue to do so for the next four years.”

The vote came as a relief to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who faced being turfed out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London if Mr Lasso had won the run-off.

Mr Moreno’s administration will be inaugurated on May 24.