QUITO (Reuters):

He drives a beat-up car, shuns suits and is the black sheep of his well-connected family, but Alberto Acosta is now set to head Ecuador's main legislative body on a mission to boost state control over the economy.

The ideological architect of President Rafael Correa's leftist policies, Acosta led the govern-ment party to an easy win in a election for a new assembly that will start work next month, and is charged with rewriting the constitution.

The academic, who cut his political teeth in clashes with police at anti-government protests in the 1990s, has pledged to deepen Correa's push to help the poor majority with income from the Andean country's oil and other natural resources.