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In a month a referendum promoted by the government of Guillermo Lasso will be held in Ecuador. Currently, the eight questions that make it up are being promoted, as well as candidates for mayoralty, prefectures, councilors and parish councils on a national scale, who will be elected that same day. For some political analysts, the referendum is more a strategy by the president to improve his image than an interest in the opinion of citizens.
According to the most recent opinion study in Ecuador, the approval of President Guillermo Lasso is 15%, which is why he arrives at the election process for municipal authorities on February 5 in an unfavorable situation. However, he decided to push for a referendum to carry out reforms in accordance with his administration’s policies.
“Very short-term room for manoeuvre”
“The move as the Government conceives it of including a popular consultation is precisely to try, in some way, to draw water from its mill, to have a favorable response from the citizenry to these eight questions, which appeal to a series of senses common. These are questions that are highly charged with cheating because they do not solve basic problems in terms of security, in terms of rejecting institutions such as the Assembly, such as the Citizen Participation Council itself, ”explains Andrés Chiriboga, a political analyst.
“Precisely what Lasso wants is, in some way, to incorporate an element to campaign that is favorable to him and gain a certain margin of maneuver that, in my opinion, will be a margin of maneuver in the very short term, if it is possible. the voters come to support him in these eight questions that he is asking ”, continues the expert.
“These are issues that concern people”
For the political scientist Chiriboga, if these constitutional reforms are approved, they will do little to solve the country’s problems: “For example, in terms of security, what President Lasso is trying to make the public believe is that by giving them greater autonomy to the State Attorney General’s Office, and on the other hand, allowing the extradition of Ecuadorians who have committed crimes related to organized crime, will solve a very serious insecurity problem that the country is experiencing, when the concrete solutions go through the tools that already has its own government. The government has basically been ineffective.”
“Although people still do not know well the subject of the consultation, it is clear that they are issues that concern them. At the moment people are not so positioned but they are topics that will immediately appeal to them. And as the electoral campaign progresses, we are going to see how successful this consultation of the president is, ”he concludes.
The Ecuadorian president is already promoting the campaign for the “Yes” in the referendum based on three key issues: security, representativeness and environment.
