00:00Let's go back now to Ecuador amid the general elections taking place in the country and let's
00:05welcome RaĂșl 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 GonzĂĄlez 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 GonzĂĄlez 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 GonzĂĄlez, 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.
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