Draft constitution would shift power to Ecuador's leftist president

A proposed new constitution grants Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa broad powers including the ability to dissolve Congress and set monetary policy, and would let him stay in office through 2017. The charter, expected to be approved Thursday by the constituent assembly elected to write it, is needed to help wrest power from Ecuador's widely discredited traditional political parties and more equitably distribute wealth, says the U.S. trained economist who took office in January 2007. Correa's detractors say the proposed constitution would concentrate excessive power in his hands and amount to a virtual coronation of the self-avowed Christian socialist leader. If approved by the assembly as expected, the nation's voters will decide Sept. 28 whether to adopt it. The constitutional rewrite follows the lead of Correa's... [read full story]