Referendum in Ecuador Ends With 72% of Participation

The vote of the referendum called for this Sunday in Ecuador by President Daniel Noboa concluded with a participation of 72% of the 13.6 million Ecuadorians who were called to the polls.

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Diana Atamaint, the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), announced the closure at 17:00 local time (22:00 GMT) of more than 4,300 polling stations that remained open for ten consecutive hours.

Voting day passed normally until the director of a prison, the third authority who is the victim of a deadly attack, was killed. Cosme Parrales, director of the Rodeo Prison in Portoviejo, Manabí, as confirmed in a statement by the National Service of Comprehensive Care for Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the state penitentiary agency.

From 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. local time, 4,322 polling stations remained open to receive citizens, who will have to vote "Yes" or "No" to questions related to the participation of the Armed Forces in the fight against organized crime, the recognition of international arbitrations, and the establishment of temporary and hourly contracts.

The referendum were held amid an international diplomatic crisis caused by the assault on the Mexican Embassy to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas. In the last two weeks, Ecuadorians have also experienced blackouts and power cuts lasting up to eight hours a day.

The Ecuadorian political movement Citizen Revolution (Revolución Ciudadana), the main opposition force, affirmed that the popular consultation does not solve anything regarding the urgent problems of that country, At the same time, he stressed that the popular consultation mechanism should not be used "irresponsibly", nor as "a poll of a nascent presidential discharge."