Source: Prensa Latina, 23 May 2011.
The official announcement this week of the outcome of the national referendum, where the Yes vote clearly won all 10 questions, brings Ecuador to a new stage, marked by the implementation of the people´s will at the polls.
Over four million citizens voted Yes, and in the counting of the valid votes on May 7, as established by the Constitution, support for the proposals of the Rafael Correa administration reached 53.4 percent, while 46.6 percent went to the No vote.
According to Correa himsel, speaking on his regular radio/television program, the Yes vote represents about 500,000 votes more than what he won in the 2009 presidential elections, which was 51.99 percent of the vote.The national leader of the Alianza PAIS Movement, Gustavo Baroja, recently said that this referendum is the beginning of strengthening the main principles of the Citizens' Revolution: justice, solidarity and transparency.
Even though the victory of the referendum will make it possible to change the inefficient judicial system, reinforce the fight against corruption and illegal enrichment, and end conflicts of interest among bankers and the media, its implementation will be complex.
The first five questions had the nature of a referendum and refer to constitutional amendments, some of which will require new laws, such one on the judicial system, and require a simple majority of 63 votes in the Parliament.
