Voters are expected to easily approve this chronically unstable country’s 20th constitution today, expanding Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa’s powers and letting the pugnacious leftist run for two more consecutive terms.
The US and European-trained economist has staked everything on the constitutional rewrite that, while far from radical compared with similar projects in Venezuela and Bolivia, would let Correa firmly elbow aside what remains of a badly splintered opposition.
“This election is between two worlds, two systems, two completely different notions of economic development,” Correa told a crowd of 8,000 attending his final pre-referendum rally in the coastal city of Guayaquil.
Approval would automatically lead to presidential, congressional and local elections early next year, and an overhaul of the nation’s judiciary in which Correa is expected to play a decisive role. The central bank and other key institutions would also cede or lose autonomy.
Opinion surveys predicted Correa would win comfortably, though about one in five voters was undecided.
“What we’re going to have with this constitution is a concentration of power in the executive and very few checks and balances,” political scientist Adrian Bonilla said.
Already, he said, Correa wields “more power than any other [Ecuadoran] president in modern times.”
“If the new constitution passes, there will be an increased risk of repression, the persecution of all people who think differently from the president,” former Ecuadoran president Lucio Gutierrez said. “Poverty is going to increase. Nobody is going to want to invest in Ecuador. Corruption will increase.”
He called Correa an acolyte of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Unlike Bolivian President Evo Morales, however, Correa has kept Chavez at arm’s length.
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