Lack of electoral guarantees, suspension of political organisations, lawsuits against opposition leaders and complaints of violation of rights constitute a scenario of institutional deterioration. This is maintained by the president of the Citizen Revolution (RC) movement.
Her name is Gabriela Rivadeneira and she has affirmed that the South American country is experiencing a “democratic state rupture” and there has been a violation of political rights during the process prior to the November sectional elections.
She did so at a press conference last week, in which she maintained that the lack of electoral guarantees and the decisions taken by the authorities, including the suspension of the RC, configure a scenario that prevents political participation under equal conditions. “The constitutional mandate was broken. Therefore, the rule of law is broken and democracy is hurt,” said Rivadeneira, and assured that the electoral process “does not guarantee that the people will freely choose at the polls.”
According to Rivadeneira, after the suspension of the RC and the Amigo movement, other political organisations that had considered hosting their candidacies also face pressures and processes that seek to prevent their participation.
“Many political organisations that have already opened the door to the RC candidacies were directly threatened with suspension,” she said.
In relation to the suspension imposed by the Electoral Contentious Court (TCE), she indicated that the RC has not been notified of an investigation, “so our right to defence was violated.”
She insisted on the illegality of the process that “was used to affect the participation of our political organisation” in the elections to elect local authorities.
Her organisation maintains legal actions in national and international instances to denounce what it considers violations of political rights and insisted that the country is going through a dictatorship.
“The government has done one thing very well: install a state of terror. People are afraid, not only of the hitman, but of the repression of the State,” she said.
For Rivadeneira, the absence of legal certainty, the suspension of political organisations, difficulties in registering candidacies, judicial proceedings against opposition leaders and complaints of forced disappearances are elements that show institutional deterioration.
In her opinion, democracy is also violated when the population loses access to essential public services or faces economic difficulties: “When a child cannot go through the educational system, when a woman cannot give birth in a public hospital, when a young person does not have access to work and when more than 50% of the country wants to migrate because there are no alternatives, democracy is broken.”
She mentioned that they have presented information to organisations such as the United Nations, the Organisation of American States (OAS), the European Parliament and other international spaces, where they request that the development of the Ecuadorean electoral process be observed. PL
(Translated by Susan Seccombe) – Photos: Pixabay)
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