Indigenous movement strengthens its opposition to government

Flickr image by Yamil Salinas Martínez

Provinces where the No vote dominated the referendum request that their decision be respected.

Despite the success of the government’s proposal in the referendum that took place on May 7, the indigenous movement in Ecuador — which supported the “No” vote during the plebiscite — consolidated its electoral power by winning in 11 provinces where its communities have a majority presence, and in doing so, demonstrated that it is still the primary social force in the country.

Although the approval of the 10 questions posed in the referendum and popular consultation, which certainly turned into a way to endorse — or not — the president’s administration, signaled a victory for the national government with 47.2 percent of the votes, compared with 41 percent who rejected the proposal, the triumph still taught the government a few lessons as it did not expect to be beaten in half of Ecuador’s provinces — in the Sierra and in the Amazon — and as was the case in the Amazonian provinces, with a margin of up to 30 percentage points.

The more than 11 million voters had to decide on five questions about constitutional amendments and five queries requested by President Rafael Correa, including judiciary reform and the scope of preventative detention, media regulations, a ban on gambling and killing animals for entertainment, penalization for workers’ non-affiliation with social security and the criminalization of unsubstantiated increases in private wealth

Following a euphoric moment triggered by poorly implemented exit polls, Correa then had an agonizing wait for results before proclaiming himself the winner, especially given that smaller provinces were finalizing their counts and indicating a win for “No” votes. Ultimately, the two largest coastal provinces, Guayas and Manabí, gave Correa a comfortable victory, while in the two largest provinces of the Sierra, Pichincha and Azuay, the winning margin was well under the government’s expectations, though they finally ended up supporting the nation-wide “Yes” victory.

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