Monday, October 1, 2007

Ecuador: Correa claims victory in vital elections

“The people of Ecuador have won the mother of all battles,” declared that country’s president- Rafael Correa- after unofficial results showed that his party won majority of seats in the constituent assembly. The poll by Santiago Perez indicated that members of Correa’s Alianza Pais (AP) faction won at least 79 of 130 seats. A fast count by Participación Ciudadana and published in El Comercio showed that AP candidates won a whopping 87% of the vote with most of the opposition groups earning less than 3%.

What does this mean for Ecuador? The bottom line is that President Cornea would have a mandate to change the constitution much like previous constituent assemblies in Bolivia and Venezuela. Thus, critics worry that he will exploit the assembly in order to transform the country into a socialist state.

Yet Correa’s allies claim that the assembly will increase the political clout of the poor over corrupt, established parties. Moreover, according to Diario La Hora, Correa remarked that the opposition’s worries were unfounded:

“Correa assured that he would not pursue a ‘totalitarian project or, worse still, a foreign plan’; thus, he rejected criticism from the opposition linking him to the socialist project of his colleague and Venezuelan friend Hugo Chavez.

‘We are good people. There are no hidden agendas and the international community knows that.’”

Sources (English)- Bloomberg, Reuters UK, BBC News

Sources (Spanish)- El Comercio, Diario La Hora, eluniverso.com

Image- Xinhua


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