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With 48 % of the vote counted and an exceedingly slow count, two controversial referendum items pushed by President Correa are losing...albeit by slim margins.
The issues concern judicial and media reforms.
Results are seen as an important gauge of Correa's popularity.
In 2006, Correa was first elected...and re-elected in 2009 after the constitution was rewritten.
Most disputed are two questions that would keep media owners from other commercial interests and create a government media oversight authority.
"They've been saying it's totalitarian... [a word] used for a state in which things are done by force. We're doing this democratically," he said.
Polls report that perhaps half of citizens had trouble understanding the ballot questions.
