Ecuadoreans will head back to the polls on 2 April to determine who will occupy El Palacio de Carondelet, Ecuador's government house, for the next four years, after 19 February's general election didn't come up with an outright winner. Against all projections Socialist Lenin Moreno, who served as outgoing president Rafael Correa's vice president between 2007 and 2013, did very well.
He obtained 39.21 per cent of the votes, just shy of the 40 needed to win in the first round. He is in a strong position for the 2 April run off. In order to cross the line he will have to negotiate and attract the social democracy of Paco Moncayo, who came fourth.
The closer contender is the right wing banker Guillermo Lasso, who assured that, if elected, Julian Assange would be expelled from the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he has been since 2012, when Correa granted him asylum. Lasso obtained 28.42 per cent of the votes, so to win in run off he will have to knit together the highly fractured Ecuadorean right
While Moreno fell short of winning in the first round there is a sense that the Ecuadorean 21st century socialism, an economic and political model instigated by Correa, is still popular among the majority; and in this Andean country of 15 million the majority are poor.
Perhaps the big winner of the undecided first round was Correa himself. Against all predictions his ruling Alianza País obtained a comfortable majority in the National Assembly. It won 75 out of 137 seats.
The election also gave the departing president one more triumph. His referendum — where Ecuadorians where asked to approve an 'Ethical Pact' preventing anybody with financial assets in tax heavens from holding public service roles — was solidly ratified. The referendum was called as a response to the Panama Papers scandal.
Correa, colloquially called 'mashi' (comrade in Quechua) won the 2006 election and took office in 2007. In an OPEP oil wealthy country, Correa inherited a neoliberal driven financially bankrupt society.
Equipped with an authoritarian style of leadership — not always welcome — Correa managed to stabilise the economy. From the first year of his government to 2015 the GDP grew 3.9 per cent; ten points above the Latin American average of 2.9.
"Not everything has been rosy for Correa. During his ten years in power he foolishly alienated — due to his aggressive extractive-based economy — important sectors of