These are the questions that the Executive of Ecuador will submit to the popular consultation

The Government of Guillermo Lasso is preparing a referendum for February 2023 with a series of questions that seek to strengthen security, promote employment, make institutional and environmental improvements. We tell you what they consist of.

The Constitutional Court is studying three new questions that the Ecuadorian Executive added to the popular consultation that will take place within the framework of the sectional elections. The new questions that seek to strengthen security and promote employment are added to eight already approved by the justice body.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Ecuador

The Court will have 20 days to rule on the validity of the texts presented by the Minister of Government, Francisco Jiménez, on October 31.

The three questions are focused on “strengthening security and promoting employment for citizens,” according to the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, through Twitter.

THE QUESTIONS PROPOSED BY THE GOVERNMENT ARE THE FOLLOWING:

• Do you agree with allocating the amounts seized from money laundering, terrorism and financing offences, human trafficking, migrant smuggling and crimes related to controlled substances to education programs with an emphasis on children and adolescents?
• Do you agree to classify the crime of extortion as organized crime, so that those who are forced to carry out business with intimidation for belonging to an organized crime group are punished with a custodial sentence of between 7 and 10 years?
• Do you agree with providing an additional deduction of 100% in the calculation of the taxable income tax base for those who employ people 45 years of age or older?

Among the issues already approved, it is included allowing the extradition of Ecuadorians who have committed crimes related to transnational organized crime, which includes drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

It also seeks to guarantee the autonomy of the Prosecutor’s Office, in the selection, evaluation and sanction of its officials; reduce the number of members of the National Assembly given that the current regulations establish that the benches must increase based on population growth; require that political movements have a minimum number of members.

It is also committed to changes in environmental matters since it plans to incorporate a water protection subsystem into the National System of Protected Areas and seeks that people or communities receive compensation for their contributions in the generation of environmental services.

The other two questions are committed to modifying the way in which some authorities are appointed and removing the role of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) in the selection and appointment of authorities. In this sense, it is expected that the positions of Comptroller, prosecutor, public and people’s defenders, among others, will be defined by the Assembly.

Similarly, it is proposed that the members of the CPCCS also be defined by the assembly members.

WHAT WILL THE REFERENDUM PROCESS BE LIKE?

The final pronouncement of the Court on all the questions is essential so that the executive decree that will convene the popular consultation can be issued.

The Justice body must first analyze that the questions meet legal requirements and, furthermore, are not tendentious with the electorate.

As soon as this protocol is fulfilled, the National Electoral Council will have 15 days to call elections, which must be held in no more than 60 days and, according to government forecasts, could be held simultaneously with the sectional elections—where people vote for local authorities of the country—, set for February 5, 2023.

With information from Sputnik