FACTBOX: Facts about Ecuador's proposed assembly

(Reuters) - Ecuadoreans vote on Sunday in a referendum to create an assembly to rewrite the constitution.

President Rafael Correa proposed the assembly as a way to end Ecuador's political instability and has said it could cut the power of an unpopular Congress, stripping legislators' influence in the judiciary and state companies and making them live in the poor constituencies they represent.

Here are some details of Correa's proposed assembly:

* If Ecuadoreans back setting up the assembly in Sunday's referendum, they will choose its 130 members in an election later this year, most likely in September or October.

* Political parties or movements fielding candidates for the assembly would have to gather signatures from at least 1 percent of the Andean nation's 9 million registered voters.

* One hundred members of the assembly would be elected in their respective provinces and voters would pick 24 others from a national list of candidates. The remaining six would be elected by more than 140,000 registered voters living abroad.

* The government would finance the publicity campaign of assembly candidates; private funding would not be allowed.

* The assembly would last for six months and could only be extended once for two months.

* The assembly would have broad powers to write a new constitution. All reforms would need support from the majority of assembly members, meaning at least 66 votes.

* A new constitution would then have to be approved by voters in another referendum.