Mayoral Election
The city of Buenos Aires held a mayoral election today. I accompanied Vanesa downtown to her voting location. It looks like everyone will have to return to the polls in a few weeks because the winner must acquire 51% of the vote. Since there were three candidates, with the winner Mauricio Macri showing about 45%, Daniel Filmus with 25%, and Jorge Telerman with 20%, Macri and Filmus will go head to head in another election. What’s interesting about voting in Argentina is that it’s mandatory. Supposedly failure to vote results in a fine and other hassles.
While it might seem like a decent idea on the surface, I’m glad we don’t require people to vote. Those who vote should be informed and have at least a decent idea of what they’re doing. Mandatory voting would only increase the number of people voting without any clue as to what they’re doing. In turn, political campaigns would be even more full of empty promises and appeals to common misconceptions. While low turnout is sad, voting is still a right and privilege and not an obligation.
(In a side note, many political candidates here have facial hair–not to common and unheard of in Congress. Also, they don’t smile in their political ad photos. Maria told me this would signify they were joking or making fun rather than taking their job seriously. A bit different than our photo-ops with senators shaking hands and kissing babies).
