The elections reflected citizen concern about insecurity, above support for President Daniel Noboa’s proposal. Ecuadorians approved nine questions regarding safety issues and rejected two related to hourly work and international arbitration.
Legal experts consider that Noboa now has no excuses to put a stop to insecurity, although they warn that the implementation of the consultation proposals will not be of much use if social measures are not adopted to reduce inequality.
The official counting of the votes and processing of the minutes of the popular consultation ended this Friday and the data released confirms the majority rejection of hourly work and international arbitration.
While the questions about security obtained the majority support of Ecuadorians, those about the economy and employment were rejected by almost seven out of 10 citizens, according to figures from the National Electoral Council (CNE).
After the electoral process, President Noboa carried out a restructuring of his cabinet with the appointment of Mónica Palencia as Minister of the Interior and Michele Sensi Contugi as Minister of Government and in charge of the General Directorate of the Strategic Intelligence Center (CIES).
Palencia served as Minister of Government and in charge of the Interior portfolio, however, on Monday afternoon she presented her resignation to the Ministry of Government and assumed the Ministry of the Interior. Likewise, the head of the Executive appointed Alegría Crespo as the new Minister of Education, replacing Daniel Calderón, who was at the head of that Ministry since November 2023.
Likewise, Noboa appointed Luis Alberto Jaramillo as the new general director of the National Customs Service of Ecuador (Senae), who replaced María Gabriela Ochoa.
In the midst of this context, the energy crisis is worsening in the country with extensive blackouts that have caused estimated losses of 20.6 million dollars per hour to the productive sector.
The minister in charge of Energy and Mines, Roberto Luque, explained that the rains have improved the basins of the hydroelectric plants but the crisis in the sector persists in the country. This Friday, Luque revealed that the Government is trying to cause rain by planting or bombing clouds.
The Government attributes the crisis to the drought, the lack of investment and maintenance of the sector, as well as inappropriate decisions in recent months. With that justification, President Noboa dismissed the minister of the sector, Andrea Arrobo, and sued her and 21 other officials for allegedly keeping key information hidden and for the paralysis of public service.
By the way, this Wednesday, the benches of the Construye movement and the Social Christian Party (PSC) here presented a request for impeachment against former Minister Arrobo, for failure to perform duties.
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