Ecuadorians decide on the future of the country this Sunday at elections

We now go live with our colleague Jorge Gestoso to bring us what we can expect in Ecuador presidential runoff.

Transcript

00:00And in this context we are going live to Ecuador with our special envoy Jorge

00:05Gestoso to have all the details as Ecuador gears up for this presidential runoff.

00:11Hello Jorge, welcome to From the South. What can you tell us from Ecuador?

00:14We are about less than 20 hours away from the beginning of the runoff and the president

00:25Daniel Novoa has agreed the state of exception in seven provinces out of the 24 of this country.

00:33That means that that gives the armed forces the authority to be running on the streets.

00:40There is also involved a curfew starting at 10 pm. On the other hand, last day, yesterday,

00:50President Novoa has agreed to remove the security guards of the candidate, her rival, Luisa González,

01:01and replace for another team of the armed forces, something that has been observed as a real mean

01:09decision because the only interpretation that it had, even from the presidential candidate Luisa

01:17Gonzalez is trying to destabilize her point of view and her family and herself, meaning that she is not

01:28secure because she has received many, many, many death threats. And on the other hand, now the big

01:36question mark is what is going to happen with the undecided, with the vote that has been voted in blank,

01:44the first round. Different areas says different results and according to the National Electoral Council,

01:55around 9 pm is expected, emphasis in expected, to have an irreversible trend of the results. And so

02:07what we know is that out of the four exit polls companies that were ready and approved to run exit polls,

02:18only two of them are going to do it. They are going to have to present their results before 5 pm, that is the

02:27moment that the polls close, but they are going to present it to the National Electoral Council and then the

02:35National Electoral Council will decide when they are going to release it. So there is a lot of expectations

02:42and most definitely we have never seen that level of disparities on the viewpoints of the people.

02:52There is a lot of tension, but in the streets of Quito things are looking pretty quiet. This is the second day

03:00of what they call the electoral silence. People cannot do electoral campaigns, they cannot pass any

03:08ads, but what the president candidate Novoa is doing is running on TV. They are not commercials,

03:16but they say that there are achievements because it has created the way they presented achievements from the

03:24armed forces, the police, the National Electoral Council. That is a way to try to show that his government

03:34and himself is efficient. So we are following all that and we are going to share it with you throughout the day.

03:41We get back to you now.

03:42Just also one question before finishing this report. What can you tell us on how the people are perceiving this

03:50recent declaration of emergency, this state of emergency decree in Ecuador? We know that this election is

03:54taking place amidst a severe insecurity crisis. How could this impact the electoral day tomorrow?

04:04Depends on whom you just ask a question. For many people say that Ecuador has been living almost

04:13in a permanent basis in a permanent basis on a state of exception. So there's no surprise for most of them.

04:23There's another part of the population that sees that as a trick of the president candidate Daniel Novoa

04:31that is trying to dissuade in a way people to leave their homes and go to the polls, creating the perception

04:41that the streets are more dangerous than usual and therefore that could eventually work on his favor.

04:50That is his expectation. So depending on whom you talk is the answer that you get.

04:59Thank you, Hestoso, for this report. We're going to stay in touch for the upcoming news brief to continue

05:04having everything as Ecuador-Crissov for this presidential runoff. Thank you for being with us at these early hours.

05:12Thank you for the opportunity.