Quito, Ecuador: Socialist Lenin Moreno on Monday celebrated victory in his bid to extend a decade of leftist rule in Ecuador but faced allegations of voting fraud from his conservative rival.

Victory for the 64-year-old Moreno, a wheelchair user and political champion of disability rights, would be good news for the Latin American left, which is in decline.

It would also be a relief for Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faced a threat by Moreno's rival to expel him from his refuge in Ecuador's London embassy.

With 96.96 percent of votes counted, the National Electoral Council said Moreno won 51.16 percent against 48.84 percent for conservative banker Guillermo Lasso.

‘We will continue this process that has changed Ecuadorans' lives, especially for the poorest citizens,’ the triumphant Moreno told supporters, before singing for the crowd.

Protesters cry fraud

Lasso vowed to challenge the result, however, saying his campaign had evidence of an attempt to rig the results.

‘We are going to defend the will of the Ecuadoran people in the face of an attempted fraud that aims to install what would be an illegitimate government,’ he said.

Some Lasso supporters protested outside election offices in Quito and other cities, demanding transparency in the vote count.

The electoral authority was under tight police guard and surrounded by security barriers on Monday morning.

Changing political map

The election was closely watched as a barometer of the political climate in Latin America, where more than a decade of leftist dominance has been waning.

Argentina, Brazil and Peru have all shifted to the right in recent months as the region has sunk into recession.

Moreno is the designated heir to outgoing President Rafael Correa's ‘21st-century socialism.’

‘Thank you to the Latin American presidents who have called and sent messages of congratulations and affection,’ Moreno wrote on Twitter.

‘We will strengthen our integration’ in the region, he vowed.

Center-right ex-banker Lasso vows to take Ecuador in a new direction as the country's economic boom has gone bust.

Boosted by high prices for its oil exports, Ecuador registered solid economic growth during the first eight years of Correa's presidency, before tipping into recession in 2015.

Correa won loyal fans among the poor with generous social benefits that helped slash the poverty rate in this country of 16 million people.

‘I hope he finishes the work that remains to be done,’ said Rocio Vargas, a 57-year-old social worker celebrating Moreno's victory.

‘Correa did what he could and people are ungrateful. But with Lenin, I think we are going to eradicate poverty.’

But Correa has also faced accusations of corruption and squandering the windfall of the oil boom.

‘Moreno will face two challenges: starting his term in government with diminished popularity (for his side) and with an economy that is going through lean times,’ political scientist Esteban Nicholls from the Andean University of Ecuador told AFP.

If his victory is confirmed, Moreno will be the first wheelchair user to be elected Ecuador's president, and one of few such leaders in world history. His legs have been paralyzed since he was shot during a carjacking in 1998.

Assange wades in

Lasso had threatened to revoke the political asylum Ecuador has granted to Assange.

Correa, an outspoken critic of the United States, has let the WikiLeaks founder stay at the London embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over a rape allegation.

Assange denies the charge and says he fears Sweden wants to send him to the United States to face trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

Assange commented on the election result in a provocative Twitter message on Sunday, referring to accusations from Correa's camp that Lasso had money stashed in offshore accounts.

‘I cordially invite Lasso to leave Ecuador within 30 days (with or without his tax haven millions),’ he wrote.