Julian Assange will sleep easy tonight – assuming he sleeps at all – after Ecuadorian president Lenín Moreno Garcés retained power.

Opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso, of the Creando Oportunidades, party, had pledged to evict Assange from Ecuador's London embassy within 30 days of an election win. Lasso's planned to find Assange another bolt-hole in which he could continue to claim asylum, but wanted the white-haired one gone on grounds his use of Ecuador's embassy is costing the country money it can ill-afford.

Economic matters were a more prominent topic for debate during the election, which according to the official tally at Ecuador's National Electoral Council has Garcés ahead by 214,000 votes with 95.75 per cent of the count complete.

Assange took to Twitter to voice his opinion on the outcome.

I cordially invite Lasso to leave Ecuador within 30 days (with or without his tax haven millions) https://t.co/8tORJgltQl #AssangeSILassoNO pic.twitter.com/Pbf5Bf3UrL — Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) April 3, 2017

The call for Lasso to leave Ecuador relates to the candidate's ongoing shareholding in a major bank where he serves as executive president., plus allegations he has used tax havens.

To make things even more confusing, Lasso is considered to be on the left of the government, an odd position for a banker. But perhaps no odder that Assange's position of fondness for the Putin regime. ®