Ecuador’s National Electoral Council (CNE) decided this Saturday to forward President Daniel Noboa’s new call for a referendum on creating a Constituent Assembly to the Constitutional Court, ruling that it must first be reviewed by the high court, as required by law.

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With four votes in favor, the council approved a motion requesting that the judges issue a prompt ruling on the constitutionality of Decree 153, through which the president again called a referendum.

The electoral body’s decision comes amid the Executive’s push to convene a Constituent Assembly, seeking a new constitution that eases the rigidity of the current one and could, for instance, allow the return of foreign military bases to the country.

This measure represents a political setback for President Noboa, since the Constituent Assembly was one of his major campaign promises. The immediate consequence is that his proposal will be put on hold indefinitely, awaiting the Court’s ruling.

On Saturday morning, the CNE formally declared open the electoral process for the referendum. However, it did so only for two of the questions originally proposed by the Executive: the one concerning the return of foreign military bases and another on financing for political organizations. The question on the Constituent Assembly was excluded from the start of the process, and its future now depends solely on the Constitutional Court’s decision.

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