Ecuador | Political analysis of the 2025 General Elections - video Dailymotion

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In the framework of the 2025 General Elections of Ecuador, we interview Raul Salgado, Professor at FLACSO, The Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences of Ecuador to discuss the possible outcomes of this democratic process. teleSUR

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00:00Let's go back now to Ecuador amid the general elections taking place in the country and let's

00:05welcome Raúl Salgado, doctor in political science and international studies, professor as well at

00:11SLACSO, the Latin American faculty of social sciences of Ecuador. Hi professor and thank

00:16you very much for joining us today. Thank you very much for inviting me, good afternoon.

00:23So professor, there are 16 candidates running for the presidency today, however there are two on

00:29the front line, current president Daniel Novoa and Luisa González from the leftist citizen

00:34revolution movement who are also facing each other once again. Let's remember to our audience that

00:39they both ran for president during the early elections of 2023 following former president

00:45Guillermo Lasso's corruption scandals. So what's different on this occasion and how would you

00:49describe both candidacies at this point? I think the difference is that Daniel Novoa had a 15

00:58chance to demonstrate that he's able to lead the country and unfortunately he hasn't been so

01:07efficient and I would say able to lead the country in the way it should have been

01:16and the people are a bit disappointed about that. However, I would say there is a quite

01:22a good percentage of population still thinking that Daniel Novoa might be able to turn around

01:32and try to improve the country but there is a huge disappointment by the population

01:39and I think we are going to go to a second run of probably in April.

01:47We've seen in this context Luisa González taking her political campaign to the streets

01:52while Novoa stayed indoors releasing his electoral campaign on social media.

01:57How could these different approaches to the people be decisive on this election's outcome?

02:05It is a case, I think there is a huge problem in the country because of the violence it hasn't been

02:13it hasn't been possible to control. There is a huge rate of unemployment and we had a huge

02:26electrical crisis last year. Luisa González, I would say the apparatus behind her is not new,

02:38it's an established organization, they have experience but it's not easy to turn around the

02:45situation in one or two years. It will take a long time to improve the situation of the country.

02:52The problem of the seven last years of bad management of the country, bad politics,

02:59I think it's damaged the infrastructure of Ecuador, it has also decreased the

03:08possibilities of employment, the employment rate is very high, there is no real possibility for

03:16young people to work, there is less invest in the infrastructure and in the social systems

03:26that is collapsing and unfortunately this president has been able to manage it either.

03:35So I think maybe the experience of another different kind of policy might be possible

03:43to change the situation but it won't be an easy task for whoever wins the election.

03:50Professor, also you mentioned the political spectrum of the country and in this context

03:55the electoral campaign has been overshadowed by claims of unconstitutionality by the Vice

04:00President Veronica Abad who was elected by the people in 2023 and who has been left aside by

04:06President Novoa in this current scenario. How could this controversy affect the voting intention?

04:12Unfortunately, the way of how people understand, I would say, the possibilities of leaving the

04:22country, how they understand democracy, the political culture here in Ecuador is not

04:28well-developed, the people don't understand about the meaning of violating their constitution and

04:35major laws and it's obvious that the president has violated at least twice or three times the

04:50constitution and people, well I would say people who understand the problem behind this kind of

05:01behavior of the president probably are very upset about that and will probably

05:08change their minds and might affect the way how they elect. However, I would say the way how

05:17the party, the political organization of the president and the way how they manage the

05:23communication has impacted in the way how young people particularly understand politics.

05:32Unfortunately, they haven't developed a consciousness of political democracy and

05:40how actually the rights should work, how democracy should work. I would say therefore

05:48President Novoa will have a great amount of support by young people.

05:56Today, Ecuadorians are going also to choose as well 151 seats in the National Assembly,

06:03five representatives to the Indian Parliament and this time there will be an important change.

06:08Previously, the people elected only 137 assembly members but now Ecuador will have to vote for more

06:14151 legislators. How could this election reshape the country's legislative power?

06:23Well, according to the estimate, I would say it's going to be quite difficult for whoever

06:33wins the election because nobody will have a great majority in the parliament,

06:40the National Assembly. It's probably going to be about 35-35% of the representatives in the

06:50assembly by the party of Daniel Novoa and probably by Gonzalez and her party about 35-40%.

07:03That means not really a great majority that will be a big problem for both of them.

07:11Unfortunately, it is a difficult situation when they don't have support of the assembly

07:18because the policies need to go through and there's a quantity of

07:28parties and political organizations makes it also difficult to build a coalition in the

07:36assembly. So, it's going to be challenging for whoever wins the election.

07:41Thank you. Thank you very much, Professor, for your time here and from the South.

07:46You're welcome.

07:48We were speaking to Raul Salgao, Doctor in Political Science and International Studies,

07:53Professor at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences of Ecuador in the framework

07:57of the general elections in this country. And with this interview, let's take a short break,

08:02but we'll be right back.

Ecuador | Political analysis of the 2025 General Elections

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