The Ecuadorian national assembly voted 94-32 to pass the proposed new constitution, which would allow widely popular leftist president Rafael Correa to dissolve Congress, and gain extra terms until 2017, and gave the presidential office the ability to determine financial policy such as setting interest rates, a task currently performed in Ecuador by the independent Central Bank. An additional provision is popular among Ecuadorians anxious about U.S. influence: the new constitution prohibits the placement of foreign military bases on Ecuadorian soil, and its language is far less socialist than the Venezuelan constitutional modifications proposed by Hugo Chavez. Opponents of the constitution call it a naked power-grab where authority is consolidated right into Rafael Correa’s hands.