eitb24, 04/16/2007
"The future was at stake, the country was at stake and Ecuadoreans have said yes to that future," Correa said in the port city of Guayaquil. Sunday's turnout appeared as high as for last year's presidential election.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa won an overwhelming victory on Sunday in a referendum that could enable him to wrest power from a Congress reviled as corrupt in the politically unstable country.
With 11 percent of ballots counted, 83 percent of voters backed Correa's call for an assembly to rewrite the constitution and strip powers from a Congress they see as tainted for appointing cronies to state firms and the courts.
"The future was at stake, the country was at stake and Ecuadoreans have said yes to that future," Correa said in the port city of Guayaquil.
Popular for confronting political elites, Correa wants the new body to make lawmakers spend more time in their small constituencies and to weaken traditional parties that have been pivotal in ousting three presidents in the past decade.
Sunday's turnout appeared as high as for last year's presidential election.
The clear win is expected to bolster Correa's mandate and allow him to push ahead with initiatives such as ending the lease on a major U.S. military base, renegotiating oil deals and restructuring the national debt. Economists predict investors will welcome a Correa win. It could defuse the political confrontation and push Ecuadorean bond prices higher because the president is expected to feel less pressure to implement radical policy moves such as slashing debt payments to maintain his approval ratings.
Still, Ecuador's unstable political landscape could again change when another election is held to select members of the assembly around September. Old foes of Correa such as former President Lucio Gutierrez could get a strong foothold.
No comments:
Post a Comment