The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador reported this Wednesday that the popular consultation and referendum on issues of security, employment and justice, among other matters, promoted and convened by the president, Daniel Noboa, It will be next Sunday, April 21.
This was decided in a session called to debate and approve the calendar for the popular consultation and constitutional referendum, after the rulings of the Constitutional Court that gave way to eleven questions.
The president called for a plebiscite that includes six questions on security and action against crime; as well as four for a referendum on issues that concern the Constitution on extradition, creation of special judiciaries, investment arbitration and hourly and fixed-term employment contracts.
Among the issues that will be voted on is the participation of the Armed Forces in support of the Police against organized crime, allowing the extradition of Ecuadorians, establishing constitutional courts, recognizing international arbitrations and making the labor market more flexible with temporary and hourly contracts .
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Ecuadorians will also decide on that occasion on increasing penalties for crimes linked to organized crime and the possibility of public forces using weapons seized from criminals.
The results of the referendum will be announced on June 5, according to the calendar released by the CNE to the press. Ecuadorians must also ratify a constitutional reform approved by Congress last December so that the Armed Forces support the police in the fight against organized crime.
Daniel Noboa, president of Ecuador.
EFE/Presidency of Ecuador
The consultation raised in January by Noboa, who took office in November, will take place in a context of war against twenty criminal gangs that spread terror in the country.
The president declared the nation in “internal armed conflict” after the escape at the beginning of January of the leader of the feared Los Choneros gang from a prison in Guayaquil (southwest), Adolfo 'Fito' Macías, and an attack by drug groups allied with Mexican and Colombian cartels, which left around twenty dead .
The measure allowed him to deploy military forces to the streets and prisons to neutralize organizations branded as “terrorists” and “belligerents.” A little over a month later, the public force has arrested more than 7,500 people and confiscated about 50 tons of drugs.
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The questions of the popular consultation
The questions of the plebiscite are the following:
1. Do you agree that the Armed Forces carry out permanent control of weapons, ammunition, explosives and accessories on the routes, roads, highways and corridors authorized for entry to social rehabilitation centers?
2. Do you agree with increasing the penalties for the crimes of: terrorism and its financing, illicit production and trafficking of scheduled substances subject to control (drugs), organized crime, murder, hitmen, human trafficking, kidnapping for ransom? , arms trafficking, money laundering and illicit activity of mining resources, reforming the Comprehensive Organic Penal Code in accordance with the Annex to the question?
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![Ecuador](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2024/01/17/65a7fdb724514.jpeg)
Soldiers of the Ecuadorian army guard the José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport in Guayaquil.
3. Do you agree that people deprived of liberty serve their entire sentence within the social rehabilitation center for the crimes detailed in the Annex to the question, reforming the Comprehensive Organic Penal Code as stated in the aforementioned Annex? ?
4. Do you agree with criminalizing the crime of possession or carrying of weapons, ammunition or components that are for the exclusive use of the Armed Forces or the National Police, without affecting firearms permitted for civilian use, reforming the Comprehensive Organic Penal Code according to the Annex to the question?
5. Do you agree that weapons, their parts, explosives, ammunition, or accessories that were instruments or material objects of a crime, can be used for the immediate use of the National Police or the Armed Forces by reforming the Organic Code? Comprehensive Criminal Code according to the Annex to the question?
6. Do you agree that the State proceeds to be the holder (owner) of assets of illicit or unjustified origin, simplifying the procedure of the Organic Law of Asset Forfeiture, according to the Annex to the question?
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![Ecuador](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2024/01/11/65a015d2b4864.jpeg)
EFE/ Carlos Durán Araújo
Also, these questions for the referendum:
1. Do you agree with allowing the extradition of Ecuadorians, with the conditions, requirements, restrictions and impediments established in the Constitution, international instruments and in the Law, amending the Constitution and reforming the laws, in accordance with Annex 1?
2. Do you agree with the establishment of specialized judiciaries in constitutional matters, both in first and second instance, for the knowledge of the jurisdictional guarantees that correspond to them, amending the Constitution and reforming the Organic Law of Jurisdictional Guarantees and Constitutional Control , according to Annex 2?
3. Do you agree that the Ecuadorian State recognizes international arbitration as a method to resolve investment, contractual or commercial disputes?
4. Do you agree with amending the Constitution of the Republic and reforming the Labor Code for the fixed-term and hourly employment contract, when it is concluded for the first time between the same employer and worker, without affecting the acquired rights of workers, in accordance with Annex 4?
This plebiscite will be held less than a year before the new general elections in Ecuador, the first round of which is scheduled for February 9, 2025. and the second round, if required, will be on April 13, 2025.
Some of the questions raised by Noboa in this popular consultation already received a negative answer in the plebiscite promoted last year by his predecessor, Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023), who received a setback in the eight issues put to the vote, including the extradition of Ecuadorians and the military's support for the Police against organized crime.
EFE AND AFP
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