Moreno secures future of Ecuador’s Citizens’ Revolution
The ‘progressive’ Left will retain power in Ecuador, bucking a recent trend rightwards in the region, after a closely contested second round of presidential elections on 2 April. Despite a name appearing to proclaim his revolutionary credentials, Lenín Boltaire Moreno, the victorious candidate of the ruling Alianza País (AP), is more of a cool reconciler than a firebrand in the mould of President Rafael Correa, the polarising figurehead of the Citizens’ Revolution he will succeed in May. This has its advantages. Although the AP will supply Moreno with a (reduced) majority in the national assembly, there is a clamour for more consensual politics: his rival Guillermo Lasso of the centre-right Movimiento Creo won in more than half of Ecuador’s 24 provinces, and its most populous cities – Guayaquil and Quito. But it also has its drawbacks. Without Correa’s force of personality, Moreno will be hard-pressed to preserve political unity through challenging economic times.