Ecuador’s Correa turns protests on their head
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa dropped a bombshell this week by suggesting that the constitutional reform to allow indefinite presidential and legislative re-election which is about to be debated by the national assembly could include a special provision barring him from running again in February 2017. Correa made the announcement against the backdrop of national protests, the sixth against his government so far this year, and with the prospect of at least two more to come, including a general strike, before the year is out. There is no shortage of detractors convinced that this is a tactical move by Correa calculated to distract attention from and undercut support for the disparate protest movement (the unifying theme behind which is opposition to re-election reform). But Correa could be prepared to take a brief break from politics and return in 2021 when the global economic scenario is more favourable.
interview with Telesur on 10 November when he said that he could not see a single opposition presidential candidate who could win in 2017 and that the ruling Alianza País (AP) could run with someone other than him. Correa had said after his electoral triumph in February 2013 that he would retire from political life in 2017 only to push for a constitutional reform a year later to permit indefinite re-election for all elected posts, citing a “resurgence of the Right” in municipal elections. “The big battle [in 2017],” Correa told Telesur would be to preserve a majority in the national assembly to ensure the opposition could not “block and blackmail” the government. He added that “with great relief I say that there will be no need for my presence, I never wanted it, for me [the presidency] has been an effort.”