In case you haven't heard.........

........Studmuffin won.

Studmuffin celebrates the fact he has the best
dress sense in any leader not named Michelle

Polls have him projected to get 54% or 55% of the vote (it'll take a while to get the definitive tally, Ecuador is as Ecuador does) but the final final total will be a detail. More importantly he's the first Ecuador Prez to be voted into the job on the first round of voting since democracy came back to Ecuador, which is no mean achievement in a country famous for chucking out their heads of state before time.

I had a quick search for the worst coverage of his victory in the English language this morning. My interim winner is The Washington Times, who managed to squeeze in the flagging economy, the "volatile Andean country" and the NATCH! reference to being a Chávez-lovin' lefty in just 122 words. More cringeworthy coverage of the region, eh? ¡Que sorpresa! Here it is in full.

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ECUADOR

Correa expected to win re-election

DURAN | Ecuadoreans voted Sunday in an election that incumbent President Rafael Correa was expected to win easily, even as the economy flags, because of solid support for his welfare programs.

Polling stations were busy into the afternoon across the volatile Andean country of 14 million people that is known as much for toppling presidents as its Galapagos Islands and remote Amazon tribes.

A Correa win would confirm him as the most powerful leader in Ecuador's 30-year-old democracy and mark another victory for a generation of left-wing presidents like Venezuelan Hugo Chavez who govern many countries in the region.

An early exit poll seen by Reuters on Sunday gave Mr. Correa 56 percent of the vote and a 27-point lead over his nearest rival.

So what does Dominic Channer of Aurelian think of Ecuador's new mining law?

Dominic Channer (for it is he)

This morning, Aurelian's (now a branch of the Kinross empire) President Dominic Channer spoke on Radio Quito. Here are a few direct quotes from the interview (via OttoTrans™):

"We have followed with great interest the advance of the mining law and we have participated at several points in the mining debate to present our opinons."

Channer then pointed out that the debate goes ahead tomorrow and made a point of mentioning that the law has changed from organic to ordinary. Then there was a whole section about the contentious issue of water (one of the battlegrounds for the treehugger NGOs that have been brainwashing locals about the big nasty miners). Channer said;

"On the subject of water, we see this as a fundamental issue in the law and the fact that there will be many controls with a new water law. We see this as extremely important in the mining sector."

Next came talk about the environment in general. Channer again did himself a service by telling it like it is.

"I think it's important everybody understands that mining has an effect on the environment, but the same as any human activity, any industry, agriculture, daily human life affects the environment. The important thing is how we manage these impacts, and that is why the standards used by modern mining and the control applied by the State are so important."

"(The new law)..has many controls and is much better in this aspect than the current law. This is why a new law was created that has all necessary controls in the environmental area, the social area, the labour area. It's very important people understand that the new mining law takes cares of these uncertainties and is the result of over a year's work."

All in all, a good job done in the interview by Channer and kudos to you, sir. By the way, it's news to me that the debate will go ahead tomorrow (I thought it was just the report handing-over ceremony tomorrow)...let's hope that's true. The sooner the better, I say.

UPDATE: Silvia Santacruz of Ecuador Mining News clears up the slight confusion. Thanks, Silvia!

Hey Otto,

The Assembly's Economic Commission will present their observations to
legislators, tomorrow. Then, they will have two days to read it, and then the mining law will be presented for second debate. Here is the link to the Assembly's website.

http://www.asambleanacional.gov.ec/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16811&Itemid=1