QUITO - President Rafael Correa wait the official results to claim victory with confidence for a referendum of the referendum 10 question he conceived that critics say will allow to consolidate power at the expense of the freedom of the press and the independence of the judiciary.
Leader of left of Ecuador celebrated the vote on Saturday - what he calls the final triumph of "the dream which is called the revolution of the citizen" - long before the important official results have been counted.
A survey of output by Ms Investigacion y Estudios, regularly does not work for the Government, had been found by more than 60%, voters have approved all the questions.
But as the official results erred in margin of victory seems much weaker. With 25% counted Sunday at the beginning, all questions were shown winning but with an average more about 52% of valid votes.
The slow count notwithstanding, the head of an observer of the Organization of American States team, Enrique Correa of the Chile, said voting appeared to go smoothly and no there was no evidence of fraud.
Rafael Correa, a man of the left, the U.S.-trained Economist has brought unusual stability for a small, traditionally volatile South American nation and sang in a TV interview Saturday night on its eighth straight victory at the ballot boxbeginning with his election in 2006.
He followed the electoral manual written by his ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, get the constitution rewritten and largely erase organized political opposition. Correa, re-elected two years ago, can run again in 2013.
A few questions on the ballot on Saturday are simple, such as whether to ban bullfighting and games of chance. Others have been complex, requiring that annoying even to some attorneys of annexes multiple pages.
Two of the most controversial would bar the owners of media have commercial interests, creating a panel of Government media monitoring.
Critics say the power of referendum consolidated for Correa.
"I think that its a multiple voting ballot that without reducing freedoms in which I believe deeply," said Enrique Espinoza Ortiz, a lawyer for 77 years, who voted in a middle-class Quito district. "I am not against the Government." But this time I just said no.
The former President Lucio Gutierrez, a fierce opponent to Correa, said that Correa used the vote "to take justice by force and to dominate the media".
Correa, called the approval of the question of ownership of media "a historic act."
"We will distribute the power in this country," he said.
On Twitter, Office de Correa told him that the news media, bankers, and certain members of the Roman Catholic Church have been "our great adversaries" on Saturday.
Correa has proposed the referendum in January, three months after a violent, apparently spontaneous police revolt on the reductions of the benefits which he calls an attempt of a coup.
Much like Chavez, he crossed a largely hostile press. Since February, he filed charges of defamation against five journalists, seeking millions of dollars fines and imprisonment for some.
A key ballot question called for dissolving the Council of judicial supervision of Ecuador and its replacement by a temporary body which would be again a judicial system which had long been submitted to the will of the Executive.
Another would allow authorities to detain suspected criminals longer without filing charges.
Five issues of mandate constitutional change. The other five require action of the Congress.
Firmly in the block of South America left, Correa has a rating of 65 percent in a country which, over the prior decade elected saw three Presidents, most recently Gutierrez, contestant of popular revolts.
Haughty and irascible, Correa has alienated many former allies, including the leaders of the indigenous movement of Ecuador. They are angry against its insistence that the State have the last word on the basement and rights on the water.
But Correa populist programs, such as monthly payments of $35 to nearly 2 million poor families, housing construction and a commitment to universal free education, increased his popularity in this small Andean nation of 14.3 million people.
Many of those who voted "Yes" said it was out of respect for his Government.
"Ecuadorian we should be committed and help if we want to change, said Maria Lourdes Silva, a 43-year cosmetics saleswoman.".
Political analyst Adrian Bonilla of FLACSO think tank said that Correa mobilized skilfully oil wealth of Ecuador and a system of taxation in force in popular programs.
The former President Osvaldo Hurtado, of which the Christian Democrats, as parties of Ecuador's traditional all have all but disappeared, said Correa spoke "perfect dictatorship" by manipulating democratic institutions.
He insane foreign investors by renegotiating oil contracts to give the Ecuador a higher cut of the profits and forged a business ties with China and the Iran.
Last month, Correa expelled US Ambassador Heather Hodges on a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks in which she suggested that Correa was conscious but tolerant of corruption at the top of the national police of Ecuador.
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