ECUADOR: President Rafael Correa easily wins Referendum according to exit poll as Ecuadoreans overwhelmingly back his call for an assembly to rewrite the constitution

Record ID: 327396

  • Title: ECUADOR: President Rafael Correa easily wins Referendum according to exit poll as Ecuadoreans overwhelmingly back his call for an assembly to rewrite the constitution
  • Date: 16th April 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE)(Spanish) LUCIA BURNEO OUSTED MEMBER OF CONGRESS AND MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITION SAYING: "This is something that was corrupted from its inception and that it is taking away an opportunity to represent a change for the country. I think you have to go to change it but not with the same alliances as usual. Not with the 'cock fight and midnight' agreements, not with
  • Embargoed: 1st May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ecuador
  • Country: Ecuador
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA21CN2XYBFL521JAXWP3XY63A5
  • Story Text: President Rafael Correa has claimed victory in a referendum after an exit poll showed Ecuadoreans overwhelmingly backed his call for an assembly to rewrite the constitution in a power struggle with Congress.

    Ecuador's President Rafael Correa claimed victory in a referendum on Sunday (April 15) after the Cedatos-Gallup exit poll showed he won 78 percent of the vote.
    Correa, a leftist and friend of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has called for an assembly to rewrite the constitution in a power struggle with Congress.
    Correa, who has maintained huge popularity since taking office in January by confronting traditional political elites, wants the new body to strip powers from a Congress seen as having vested interests in state firms and the judiciary.
    Only 12 percent voted against the assembly and the remaining ballots were void or left blank, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
    Correa, who has spooked foreign investors with threats to stop making debt payments, staked his political career on the vote, pledging to resign if he failed to win emphatically.
    The referendum has exposed sharp faultlines in Ecuador's volatile politics. The country, which is the world's top banana exporter, has had eight presidents in a decade, three of them toppled in popular and congressional unrest.
    More than half of Ecuador's congressmen were fired last month after a tussle with Correa over the referendum. They fought with police to get back into the chamber but were ultimately sidelined when Congress convened with substitutes taking their place.
    After attempting to cast her vote, opposition member and one of the members of congress fired by Correa, Lucia Burneo said that politics as usual would not work.
    "This is something that was corrupted from its inception and that it is taking away an opportunity to represent a change for the country," said Burneo. "I think you have to go to change it but not with the same alliances as usual."
    The opposition fears Correa could become too powerful, centralizing government around himself as President Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela.
    But analysts point out Ecuador's unstable political landscape could have changed by the time of another election to select members of the assembly around September. Old foes such as former President Lucio Gutierrez could get a strong foothold there.
    Furthermore, powerful Indian groups that can oust governments may temper their allegiance to Correa if he does not offer more radical policies such as land reform and oil nationalization.
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