The Associated Press

Sun, Sep 28, 2008 (7:57 a.m.)

Ecuadoreans voted Sunday on a new constitution that would significantly broaden leftist President Rafael Correa's powers and let him run for two more consecutive terms.

Correa says approval of the Andean nation's 20th constitution will spur "rapid, profound change," benefiting the hardworking, humble majority and helping him eradicate a political class that made Ecuador one of Latin America's most corrupt countries.

While conceding that it's far from radical compared to similar projects in Venezuela and Bolivia, critics say the new constitution would give Correa far too much control over the economy, as well as the judicial and legislative branches.

Opinion surveys indicated the 45-year-old Correa would comfortably win the vote, a plebiscite on his nearly two years in power.

As polls opened Sunday, he said in a brief televised speech the vote is "not in favor of or against the government," but to decide "the model of society in which we will live."

The U.S. and European-trained economist cautioned the day before that whatever the outcome, his "revolution" will continue to face fierce resistance.

"The elites that have always dominated Latin America are not going to simply say: We lost the election. ... They're going to keep boycotting and destabilizing," Correa said.

Approval of the ballot question would almost certainly lead to presidential, congressional and local elections early next year, and an overhaul of the judiciary in which Correa is expected to play a decisive role.

The Central Bank and other key institutions would also cede or lose autonomy to Correa, a self-avowed Christian socialist who took office in 2007 as Ecuador's sixth president in a decade.

Former opposition lawmaker Gilmar Gutierrez contends Correa represents "the totalitarianism that the world already saw last century that is now failing in countries like Venezuela."

But while Correa took a page out of Hugo Chavez's playbook by pushing for a new constitution that would help him consolidate power, he has kept the Venezuelan president at arm's length.

Venezuela has promised to build a half-billion-dollar oil refinery in Ecuador, South America's fifth-largest oil producer.

But unlike Bolivia "there isn't a single Cuban doctor here," said Ecuadorean political analyst Adrian Bonilla. "Nor do you have Venezuelan advisers."

Nor has Correa moved to nationalize telecommunications and electrical utility companies or vowed to establish closer relations with Russia, as both Chavez and Morales have.

Besides allowing re-election, the proposed constitution would grant social security benefits to stay-at-home mothers and workers in the informal sector, expanding on already-popular Correa programs such as low-interest micro-loans for small businesses, building-material giveaways for homes and free seeds for growing crops.

The document also recognizes the family "in its diverse types." And while it recognizes that life "begins with conception," it also guarantees "the right to freely make responsible and informed decisions about one's health and reproductive life."

That has not sit well with the Roman Catholic hierarchy of this overwhelmingly Catholic nation. The church has complained that the new constitution could lead to legal abortion and government-sanctioned unions for homosexuals.

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Associated Press writers Jeanneth Valdivieso and Gonzalo Solano contributed to this report.