Ecuadorians voted Sunday for local authorities and a key referendum on the extradition of compatriots up to now prohibitedin a process marked by the murder of two candidates and the slow scrutiny that has not yet yielded definitive results.
(Also: Voting in Ecuador: polls give broad support to Lasso’s referendum)
According to preliminary results, Ecuadorians refuse to apply extradition as a mechanism to combat crime, after counting more than 40% of the votes, the National Electoral Council (CNE) reported on Monday.
With 42.35% of the votes in the consultation that took place on Sunday, the No to the delivery of Ecuadorians to other countries achieved 53.82% of the valid votes compared to 46.18% of the Yes, according to the CNE, that he has ten days to give the total computation.
A survey by the Cedatos company closed on Saturday and whose data was released by various media after the vote ended on Sunday showed 66% in favor of Yes. Extradition has been prohibited in Ecuador for eight decades.
(Also: Ecuador votes an extradition referendum under the shadow of drug violence)
For its part, the Citizen Revolution movement, led by former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), leads the scrutiny of the local elections held this Sunday in Ecuador in seven of the twenty-three provinces in which he was elected prefect and also for the mayors of Quito and Guayaquil.
The new political brand headed by Correa is on its way to being the main winner of the provincial and municipal elections by increasing its territorial presence in Ecuador in an electoral event seen as a barometer for the 2025 presidential elections.
What did Ecuadorians vote in the referendum?
In parallel to the election of some 5,700 local authorities as mayors, Ecuadorians spoke at the polls on constitutional reforms proposed by the right-wing president Guillermo Lasso, in power since May 2021.
The unpopular president, who in the absence of official results, he suspended a statement on Sunday nightpromotes the extradition of Ecuadorians involved in crimes of transnational organized crime such as drug trafficking and corruption.
(Keep reading: This is how they plan to attack drug trafficking on the border between Ecuador and Colombia)
The undeclared objective of the government is the delivery of drug traffickers to the United States, where they usually remain imprisoned for many years.
In Colombia, the measure to extradite drug traffickers to the United States has been in force since the 1990s.
The slow count of votes in the referendum shows that Ecuadorians also oppose the other seven questions proposed by Lasso, a former banker who wages a war against drug trafficking, who has resulted in recent years in high crime rates.
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The governor He also proposed reducing the number of deputies, now 137; controls on hundreds of political movements, some suspected of being part of drug trafficking; the incorporation of water systems into protected areas, to fight against illegal mining; and the delivery of compensation for those who protect the environment.
Congress will have one year to implement the constitutional changes that are accepted by referendum.
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