Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa’s radical transformation of his historically unstable nation, including a new Constitution that would grant him greater powers, is expected to propel the leftist economist to easy re-election tomorrow.
The 46-year-old Correa, who blames the global economic crisis on capitalism’s “structural flaws,” has spooked foreign investors with a moratorium on debt payments and tough dealings with oil companies and other multinationals.
He has imposed some of the world’s strictest protectionist measures to shield local industries, leading to criticism that his huge social spending agenda could bust the Treasury as recession takes hold this year.
PHOTO: AP
But it is precisely such actions that have made Correa, a little-known economy minister just four years ago, so popular.
“Let’s bury the party-docracy,” he told supporters on Thursday night as campaigning ended, his buzzword for the corrupt traditional politics that he has long eschewed.
Since taking office in January 2007, Correa has tripled state spending on education and health care, doubled to US$30 a monthly payment for single mothers and launched subsidy programs for small farmers and people building their own homes.
Pre-election polls show Correa more than 20 percentage points ahead of his closest rival, former president and coup leader Lucio Gutierrez. Banana magnate Alvaro Noboa was running a distant third.
To win without forcing a runoff, Correa needs more than 50 percent of the vote or at least 40 percent with a 10-point margin over his closest competitor.
Under the country’s new Constitution, approved by 64 percent of voters in a September referendum, Correa would be eligible to run for a second consecutive four-year term in 2013. His current four-year term was automatically truncated by the new Constitution.
Voters tomorrow will also choose mayors, governors and a new 124-seat National Assembly. The new constitution also lowers the voting age to 16 and for the first time permits soldiers, police and prison inmates to vote.
Correa’s critics acknowledge his popularity but warn that like his ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, he benefited politically from oil prices that skyrocketed last year but have since come down to earth.
Ecuador’s oil-based economy grew 6.5 percent last year the government says, but petroleum revenues have dropped 67 percent in the first quarter of this year.
Correa’s governing model “has been successful in its redistribution of wealth and for directing resources to social programs but not so successful in creating new types of productivity,” said Vladimir Sierra, head of the sociology department at Quito’s Catholic University.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
RSS