With 50% of the votes counted, the ‘no‘ is maintained in all questions of the referendum celebrated in Ecuador this Sunday, in which the electorate was asked about, among other issues, the possibility of installing a Constituent Assembly that would allow drafting a new Magna Carta that replaces the current one promoted by Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
Regarding this specific issue, for now 61.49% choose to reject the proposal promoted by the president Daniel Noboa compared to 38.51% who vote in favor; a trend that is repeated in the rest of the questions, including the one related to the installation of foreign military baseswhere the ‘no’ wins with 60.12% compared to 39.88% for the ‘yes’.
Noboa, promoter of the referendum, is following the progress of the count in a hotel in the commune of Olón where he has his beach residence, and where he cast his vote early in the morning, while Luisa González, former presidential candidate of Correismo, the main opposition force that campaigned for the ‘no’, follows the count at the party headquarters in the capital Quito.
Regarding the question about the elimination of public financing for political partiesthe ‘no’ is at 57.37%, while the ‘yes’ reaches 42.63%. The tightest margin is recorded by the question of reduction in the number of assembly memberswhere those who rejected the proposal registered 52.77% and in favor, 47.23%.
Of the 13.9 million Ecuadorians called to the polls this Sunday, 80% showed up to exercise their right to vote, since In Ecuador you can vote from the age of 16, but it is mandatory between the ages of 18 and 64.
The ruling party was the main promoter of the ‘yes’ vote, while it was Correismo who led the ‘no’ campaign together with the indigenous movement. Noboa’s intention, as he explained, was to replace the current Magna Carta, because he considers it to be very lax with criminals.
The celebration of the referendum occurred under an unprecedented crisis of insecurity and violence for Ecuador, as a result of the activity of criminal gangs, which led the president to declare an “internal armed conflict” in January 2024 to combat organized crime activity and classify these organized crime groups as “terrorists.”