Well, after having taken a bit of stick for going to the
other end of the world to witness a civic ceremony honouring firemen- ( I think
that phrase was something like, “what sado goes to the other end of the world
to watch a civic ceremony?”), I’ve now witnessed a national election! So this
one’s for Annie this time...
Remember my interest in increasing voter turnout and all the
backchat I got for it??????
Argentina
has the solution. Make it compulsory!
The torture you go through for not being present at the
polling station in your area is such that you wouldn’t dare not do it. I spoke
to a couple, Pablo and Marta from Buenos Aires who were down in El Calafate
celebrating a birthday. Because of that, they had to present themselves at a
police station, to explain why they could not be present in
Buenos Aires to vote and why. They would have
to do the same again when they returned to
Buenos Aires! Now that’s a way of getting
good voter turnout.
Next of all, and get this......none of the pubs or
restaurants are allowed to sell any alcohol the night before. And as all
elections are held on a Sunday, it means pubs can’t sell alcohol on a Saturday
night!!!! Can you imagine? In
UK,
there’d be riots. In fact, an election would be seen as good excuse to get
drunk the night before, but here it is prohibited!
Well, going a bit further, I thought I would do a tour of
the polling stations, as I was accustomed to doing back in Castle Morpeth (but
this time on a bike), not to check that everything was in order, but to see the
President Kristina Kirchner, who I was told would be voting in her own
constituency of Santa Cruz. She lives in and has some big business interests in
this area.
Well, I never saw the President, but I did get to see queues
at polling stations. So does that make me really, really sad or what??? And I
was left wondering; as elections take place on a Sunday, does that mean that
the Returning Officer’s on double time? Well if so, I know where I want to be
Returning Officer in the future!!! LOL.
The Election threw up an interesting result. It appears that
the Peronists have lost their majority. A hung Senate. It appears that
everywhere I appear, the politics are hung, which is exactly what would happen
if you didn’t turn out to vote!!! Well, all in all, another opportunity to
experience civic life in South America; this time in
Argentina.
