Only 17% Endorse President Lenin Moreno, New Poll Shows

Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno’s poll numbers keep on a downward spiral, as new results published Saturday from local pollster Perfiles de Opinion show, only 26.82 percent consider that Moreno is performing well.

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The data was collected from March 16 to 18, 2019, from 943 Ecuadorean citizens in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca. In February 2018 approximately 65 percent supported his management, yet in one year his approval ratings have gone down reaching a historic low of 26.85 percent.

Similarly, 58.47 percent of the respondents said that the administration of the National Assembly is "bad" compared to 21.26 percent which considers it "good." Moreno’s popularity has gone down as recent “anti-popular” economic measures have been taken and corruption allegations have flooded social media and reached the judicial system. 

On March 19, an Ecuadorean judge accepted a demand for the National Assembly to start a corruption probe against President Lenin Moreno and high ranking officials who prevented the creation of an investigatory commission for the “Ina Papers” corruption case. Moreno, 153 public officials, authorities and other defendants have been called for a hearing on April 1. 

A week later, the Ecuadorean National Assembly passed a resolution to initiate a corruption probe of President Lenin Moreno regarding the same accusations. On Friday, Attorney General Ruth Palacios called on lawmaker Ronny Aleaga, who’s heading the grievances against Moreno, to render his version before a preliminary hearing, which would elevate the probe to a higher instance. 

The case, in all three processes, involves a publication made on Feb. 19 by "La Fuente" (The Source), a digital news outlet owned by Fernando Villavicencio, an outspoken critic of ex-president Rafael Correa. The investigation presented a presumed link between Moreno and the company INA Investment Corp, a Panama offshore firm, from which a series of payments, gifts, purchases of furniture and even a luxury apartment in Spain were bought for the family of the president.