Ecuador ? Leftist President Rafael Correa scored a major victory Sunday as Ecuadoreans voted overwhelmingly to support his ambitious plan to remake the nation’s system of government and weaken its discredited Congress, an exit poll showed.

Voters across this small Andean nation, from highland Indians in ponchos to fishermen in villages along its Pacific coast, turned out to cast ballots on the need for a special assembly to rewrite the constitution – a measure many hope will bring economic improvement to their lives.

An exit poll by CEDATOS-Gallup showed that 78.1 percent of voters approved the election of a constitutional assembly while 11.5 percent rejected the proposal and 10.4 spoiled their ballots or cast blank ones.

CEDATOS-Gallup said 2,000 pollsters interviewed 40,000 voters nationwide with a margin of error in the result of 2 percent. Official results will not be available for five days.

“A historic win has been achieved today, but many more battles remain to be won,” a beaming Correa said at a news conference after the voting ended. “The future was at stake. The motherland was at stake.

Correa enjoys a 70 percent approval rating and pollsters predicted a majority would vote in favor of the referendum in a country long plagued by political instability and poverty.