Let's talk to dr. Ivonne Tellez, an expert in international law.
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00:00Let's speak now to Dr Yvonne Tellez, international law expert. Hi Yvonne, thank you so much for
00:06your time hearing from the south. Thank you Alejandra for the invitation.
00:11Yvonne, earlier today leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez made a call to defend democracy amid
00:16the country's application of a new state of emergency, imposing that no mobilizations will
00:21be allowed and also is limiting the presence of international observers in the country.
00:26What is at stake today in terms of security and democracy?
00:31I think we are facing big, big challenges regarding democracy because as Dr Jorge Gestoso announced,
00:44this state of exception and this kind of environment that has been surrounding these polls
00:51has been marked by some big question marks regarding how the electoral council is working,
00:59how the government is council and how the running candidate and president is working
01:05and in a way arranging all the forces, all the institutional forces around a poll that might
01:13have a high or has a big a big popularity towards Luisa Gonzalez, but it seems like the institution
01:23itself and I'm talking about the state has been like moving towards some strategies that tend to
01:31limit in a way how the natural exercise of election has been or is supposed to work. So I think we are
01:42facing, I don't know if we can if we can say so in that a strong sense, but it seems that the transparency
01:52of the polls at its stake. I mean we can we can pose some questions because some unusual measures regarding the
02:02institutions such as the state of exception declared yesterday for example, I mean they pose like big
02:11challenges regarding how people are going to vote. The fact that for example we cannot take our phones
02:19with us and and the pictures of the boat and some natural things that can happen with election
02:27mark some kind of tendency towards like like trying to to to to make of um I don't know like to to restrain
02:36some some uh usual unnatural liberties regarding this kind of exercise democratic exercise
02:43but uh and and also what we are facing also is uh well I don't know a big big uh chance
02:52of a of a of a big change regarding the the way or the or the path that the country is going to follow
03:01and I think that is what poses big uh in a way scares a little bit the the system in charge and
03:10on the current government regarding the big changes that can and could happen uh within this this day.
03:17Regarding these big changes you mentioned, if elected Luisa Gonzalez would become the first woman to be
03:24to become president of Ecuador's history. What would this mean for the country's progressive social
03:30and also leftist forces?
03:33Well uh definitely that will be something that we have to to highlight because not only she will be the
03:40first woman in power but also it it it um it means that we will go back from uh this uh I don't know this
03:52this this this final years that we would have been following I'm talking about Ecuador we have been
03:57following the the right path uh the right wing uh kind of government we have been uh facing big big
04:05restrictions and big um in a way going back towards those social advancements that we have in the in the
04:15in the previous uh Rafael Correa's government so I think that that might um mean that we go back to uh
04:25another view of state hopefully a new a renewed social view of the state uh also um a different path
04:38regarding how uh social issues could come to the front in this case and that will mean definitely a big big
04:47uh step I think towards development and the path that we have been um in a way losing in this uh
04:58previous years because this state has been uh and I'm talking about Ecuador we have been um
05:07not following what even what is stated in the constitution and that means that everything that has to do
05:16with the social the economic sphere of the state has been abandoned and that will be one of the
05:22structural reasons why we are facing so much problems and structural problems even regarding for example
05:29security so I I think that that will be um a definite change and hopefully we we could see that
05:36that I don't know um if if if if uh things turned in a favorable way uh as as we are expecting
05:46Yvonne very much for your time hearing from the south thank you very much Alejandra for the invitation