Ecuador voted this Sunday in an electoral day to elect their local authorities and define constitutional reforms proposed by the president Guillermo Lasso. According to a Cedatos survey, the eight questions of the referendum would obtain broad support.
(Read here: Ecuador votes for an extradition referendum under the shadow of drug violence)
More than 13.4 million of Ecuadorians. However, the day began marked by the candidate killings, a fact repudiated by the president. In total, 80% of the electoral roll went to the polls, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE).
(See also: OAS alerts on increase in illegal gold trade from Ecuador to China)
The poll figures
The referendum proposed by the Government of Ecuador to reform the Constitution in matters of security, democracy, parties, institutions and the environment will obtain broad support from the population, according to a survey carried out before the elections but released this Sunday after the vote.
Related topics
The survey, carried out on 8,468 people during the days prior to the vote by the Cedatos pollster, has a margin of error of 2.8% and indicated that the support of Ecuadorians for the eight questions formulated in the referendum ranges from 59 .1% and 74.4% of the valid votes.
According to this survey, which does not present official results, the voters approved allowing the extradition of Ecuadorians for organized crime, reducing the number of assembly members and removing the power to designate authorities such as the prosecutor from the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS). General and Controller.
The question that received the most support was to reduce the number of parliamentarians in the National Assembly (Parliament), with 74.4% for “Yes” compared to 25.6% who got “No”, according to This survey.
That was the day
A few hours before the start of the elections, a candidate for mayor of a coastal town was assassinated on Saturday, two weeks after the murder of another candidate to a mayor’s office, when Ecuador faces an unprecedented wave of crime derived from drug trafficking.
At 6:53 am this Sunday the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared the day of suffrage inaugurated and the 4,380 polling stations began to open, which will receive voters for more than ten hours. The polls closed at 5 pm, to make way for the counting of the ballots.
What is voted in Ecuador?
Some 13.4 million of the 18.2 million of Ecuadorians were summoned to elect sectional authorities such as mayors, municipal councilors and provincial prefects (governors), who will assume their positions in May for a period of four years.
They will also designate the seven members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS), which nominates the prosecutor and the comptroller. In parallel, they will decide in a referendum on the extradition of compatriots, prohibited in Ecuador for eight decades, the reduction in the number of deputies, the control of political movements and the withdrawal of powers to the CPCCS.
If the constitutional reforms proposed by Lasso are approved, Congress will have one year to implement the changes. The CNE has ten days to count the votes and will announce the results after resolving possible challenges. The inauguration of the elected authorities will take place on May 14.
This is how the day unfolds
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
TIME
*With AFP and Efe
Participation figure
Citizen participation in the elections and in the referendum to modify the Constitution held this Sunday in
Ecuador reached 80.74%, reported the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Diana Atamaint, at the closing of the polling stations.
polls close
The electoral precincts in Ecuador closed at 5:00 p.m. local time (22:00 GMT), in elections that took place without major incidents, for the process of designating local authorities, members of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) and a referendum called by the government.
Participation at noon
Voting participation in the local elections and constitutional referendum in Ecuador rose at noon to 33% of the more than 13.4 million Ecuadorians who are summoned to the polls, according to the second official report of the day offered by the Council Electoral National (CNE).
The call of the OAS
The electoral observation mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) for the local elections being held in Ecuador condemned the assassination of a candidate on the eve of election day and demanded a prompt investigation to clarify the crime.
Voting abroad
Voting in Spain for the election of Ecuadorian local authorities, the new Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS), and in the referendum proposed by the Government of Guillermo Lasso, are held “normally in time and form” and without ” no incidents,” the Ecuadorian ambassador in Madrid, Andrés Vallejo, told EFE on Sunday.
Start the day
The Ecuadorian authorities declared the electoral day in Ecuador started. 13.4 million people are summoned to the polls in 4,380 positions throughout the country.