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Ecuador rehearses for popular consultation on April 21

Quito, Apr 7 (Prensa Latina) The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Ecuador today tested the technical and operational aspects for the holding of the popular consultation and referendum on April 21, a controversial government initiative on security and employment.

The exercise was carried out simultaneously in the 24 provinces of the country with the participation of 12,100 people from institutions such as the Armed Forces, National Police, electoral officials, observers, among others.

In this way, the electoral authorities will be able to define how long it will take each voter to record their vote on the 11 questions in the ballot, and they will also be able to time the transmission of data and publication of the first results.

The president of the CNE, Diana Atamaint, specified that the electoral packages for the voting of Ecuadorians residing in Mexico are already in that nation, where the process continues normally despite the recent break in diplomatic relations.

This Sunday, in addition, the electoral campaign officially began with a view to the consultative process and the registered political and social organizations will receive funds to promote their arguments.

Atamaint recalled that public officials cannot engage in political proselytizing with State resources, although messages on social networks do not have any type of control.

Some 13 million Ecuadorians will have to respond in two weeks to questions that would entail modifications to the Magna Carta.

President Daniel Noboa seeks to reform current laws on the control of weapons and ammunition by the Armed Forces, as well as the classification of crimes for possession of weapons and increase penalties for terrorism or organized crime.

Other questions in the consultation are related to the elimination of the prohibition on the extradition of compatriots and the incorporation of judiciaries specialized in constitutional matters.

Tricky, misleading and useless were some of the qualifiers that the procedure received from 45 organizations united in the Front to Fight for No to the Consultation.

They consider that most of the questions can be dealt with in the National Assembly (Parliament) and two others, that of hourly work and that related to international arbitration, harm the people and national sovereignty.

In the opinion of civil society movements, the president took advantage of the context of uncertainty and fear to call the consultation, whose cost of 60 million dollars could be used for social sectors, such as education or health.

ef/jha/avr

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