QUITO, April 4 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa will not seek immediate re-election via his proposed citizens' assembly, as political rivals fear, a high-ranking government official told Reuters.
Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea, a mastermind of Correa's political overhaul plan, said the leftist president did not want to lead the Andean country after his term in office ends in 2011.
"We are citizens who want to serve our country for a while and we are not interested in staying in power for more than the time that we were elected for," Larrea said in an interview.
Ecuadorean law forbids immediate re-election.
Correa, a charismatic 43-year-old economist, has attempted to keep his campaign pledges with an April 15 public referendum on whether to convene an assembly that could curb the powers of Congress, which many blame for chronic instability.
After seeing three presidents ousted by turmoil in the streets and in Congress, Ecuadoreans are expected to overwhelmingly support the assembly that would rewrite the constitution.
Opposition rivals, who recently lost control of Congress after an election court fired 57 lawmakers, accuse Correa of plotting to perpetuate his powers, as his ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez did after he took office in 1998.
"These detractors have a fixation with Venezuela and that's their business. Our (new) constitution will be Ecuadorean, made by Ecuadoreans," Larrea said.
Despite's Correa's popularity, some experts say the 130-member assembly could share the same fate as previous efforts to change the country's wordy politics.
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