Ecuador's Correa outflanks foes in popular assembly

By Patrick Markey

QUITO, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa talks revolution and berates capitalists, and his big election victory this week has foes fretting about how far he will follow the socialist ways of his ally Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Correa's party won by a wide majority in Sunday's election for an assembly he says must dissolve Congress, call early elections and rewrite the constitution to curtail the power of the unstable Andean country's political old guard.

At Chavez's urging, Venezuela held a similar assembly in 1999 to draft a constitution that outflanked Congress, bolstered presidential powers, allowed his early re-election and set Venezuela on its current socialist track.

But while Correa has also drawn on his mandate by attacking elites, his mettle has yet to be tested by reactions to his proposed reforms and his popularity could dwindle if he does not tackle Ecuador's pallid economy, analysts said.

"The people who went along with Correa, went along with him because it was a referendum on the political class. That is the easy one, it is much harder when you get to specific policies," said Michael Shifter at Inter-American Dialogue think tank.

The Andean region is a caldron of left-wing sentiment with Chavez, Bolivia's Evo Morales and now Correa using popular mandates to challenge career politicians, shore up state control of energy resources and roll back free-market policies.

Correa's proposed dissolution of the Congress already has opponents playing on fears of the worst, but they have little room to challenge his assembly majority at the moment.

"It seems the president has the same policies as President Chavez," toppled president and opposition leader Lucio Gutierrez told Reuters. "This is a classic totalitarian government, one with an authoritarian tint."