2023-06-24 01:35:31
The pre-election surveys show worrying data, related to the weariness and anger of citizens with politics. Specialists warn regarding the “rupture” between civil society and its leaders, and in the upcoming presidential elections many predict a high abstention rate.
The provincial elections and, above all, the previous municipal ones are giving some indications of this feeling in the people, with different cases that seem to have, each one, its own explanation.
In recent weeks, there have been more than 150 elections in the province of Córdoba, between communes, towns and cities. La Voz surveyed the 20 most important ones (due to the weight of their register) and detected that there was a decrease in participation in all of them, although at different levels.
If the participation of the 20 localities taken for this note is averaged (72.35% four years ago with 65.3% this year), the drop is 7.05 percentage points.
There is apathy, especially among the youngest, but the chance of a competitive election (which mobilized the electorate) or of not being able to do so (demobilizing) also had an influence.
The strongest falls
In Córdoba, the first signal occurred on Sunday, March 19, when the vote was taken in La Falda, where participation reached 51% (out of 84,444 qualified). Compared to 2019, when participation reached 67%, the drop was 16 percentage points.
“Schiaretti did not present a list and did not approach. That might have meant that his voters were not there, ”explained the radical Javier Dieminger, who won re-election. And furthermore, he added that in many cases people thought that everything was defined. “People told us that we had it won, that it was not even necessary for many to go to vote,” he acknowledged.
Javier Dieminger at the Córdoba Stock Exchange lunch. (Pedro Castillo / The Voice)
Closer in time, a similar situation occurred in Anisacate, where participation also fell 16 points (76% and 60%).
In the elections two weeks ago, the leader of the PRO Natalia Contini prevailed, assuring that the previous mayor, Ramón Zalazar, “reached his ceiling” following “30 uninterrupted years of government by the same person and without leaving a legacy ”.
The detail is that this year 323 more people went to vote than four years ago (a growth of 8.7%). The problem is that the register grew by 1,820 people (37%).
Note: unlike La Falda, in 2019 Anisacate was attached to the provincial election.
On Sunday June 4, La Calera elected Fernando Rambaldi, from Encuentro Vecinal, as the new mayor. That day 64% of the register (of 37,200 voters) went to vote, which meant more than 10 points of drop compared to 2019, when it had reached 76%.
“It is the result of the lack of representativeness of the old leadership policy, which has managed, following years of bad governments, to expel the ordinary citizen, the common worker, due to weariness, fatigue and disbelief,” Rambaldi explained.
Elections 2023: Fernando Rambaldi, from Juntos por La Calera, won the elections in his city, will be the new mayor and celebrated with Aurelio García Elorrio. (The voice)
Regarding this “old policy”, he described: “Spreading the elections was a strategy of the ruling party so that fewer people would go to vote. Faced with an obscene clientelist apparatus, where they took people to vote in Traffic (we counted more than 100), they ‘took roll’ and even co-opted the vote through different systems and strategies, thus making sure that almost 100% of for their voters to participate.
Note: in 2019, La Calera was stuck with the provincial one.
The “results post”
There were other cases similar to La Falda, with a “feeling of the result in place.”
One took place last Sunday in Jesús María (register of 28,000 voters), where the percentage of participation was 60%; which meant 5.7 percentage points less than in 2019, when Luis Picat won.
“The most difficult thing was getting people to vote. Not because of apathy, but because there was a feeling that the election was defined,” explained Federico Zárate, the mayor-elect. “It took a lot for the people who supported us to go vote.”
Elections 2023: Federico Zárate, mayor-elect of Jesús María, from Together for Change, together with Luis Picat, outgoing mayor. (The voice)
In Canals, for its part, the fall was 5 points (66% once morest 61%) in a register of 7,800.
“In 2019, I won an election where there were 5 lists. The mobilization was another. Now, there was a scenario in which people said that the result was set”, replied the Peronist Edgard Bruno, who won the elections, without forgetting that they voted over a long weekend (“Without forgetting the discontent towards politics” , he clarified).
Young
Another town where participation dropped was Villa General Belgrano, where the Peronist Oscar Santarelli was re-elected. Two Sundays ago, 60.59% of the register voted there (of regarding 10,000 voters).
“From the age of 16, boys can vote. But when you go to the tables you can’t find them. The number of those who decide to participate is very small. And in our city, there are no less than 800. The absence of these people meant between 5 and 6 points. There is no awareness among young people”, analyzed Santarelli.
Elections 2023: Oscar Santarelli. Mayor of Villa General Belgrano, once more nominated by Hacemos Unidos por Córdoba. (The voice)
“Among adults there can be apathy, a product of how we do politics, how the country is, the lack of credibility because problems are not resolved. Although, I repeat, for me the problem was among the young, ”she added.
Social differences
In Leones, where Fabián “Pipi” Francioni won the elections two Sundays ago and will continue as mayor, participation dropped 7 points (it went from 77% to 70% in four years, out of a census of 10,200).
“There are several factors. On the one hand, in Leones we have almost 200 people walking around Europe. And on the other, there are employees who do not make ends meet. The difference is very marked,” Francioni explained and added: “Reviewing the register, we found that those who were and were not are the most angry regarding this situation.”
Elections 2023: Fabián “Pipi” Francioni, mayor of Leones, in the celebration for the victory that gave him a new mandate. (Francioni Press)
Note: in 2019, he hit the elections with the provincial ones.
Then, there are minor falls. Within what was expected. For example, on Sunday the 29th, the citizens of Cruz Alta went to the polls. Participation was 72% ( once morest 75% four years ago) out of a register of 6,700 voters.
“People are unhappy at other levels of politics. At the municipal level, it continues to show interest in participating”, analyzed the mayor Agustín González, who was reelected. “75% is an index that has been repeated throughout the different elections. In particular, in the latter, and despite the fact that it was a long weekend”.
Note: in 2019 the elections had not hit.
The highest percentage
Among those surveyed for this note, the town that reached the highest percentage of participation was Laguna Larga: there, 78% voted. But the fall was also great, since they came from 88% in 2019.
“In 2019 the elections were together with the provincial one. With a single ticket for the first time. That was also a novelty”, explained the Peronist mayor Matías Torres, who won the elections and also highlighted this year’s numbers. “Even so, participation is not bad, taking into account the context of these times,” he warned.
The request to go vote
“We made several publications on social networks where we asked to go vote. The only way to avoid all kinds of maneuvers was by participating with the vote,” said Tata Martin, the winner of the elections in Santa Rosa de Calamuchita in a dispute that saw participation reduced to 5 points (66% once morest 61%).
“Opposition people expressed their anger towards them by not turning out to vote. I know my people. I am 72 years old in my beloved Santa Rosa, and 47 as a pediatrician. If there is a place to listen to people’s discontent, that is the pediatrician’s office in a town, ”she summarized.
people who were not
Each town is a world apart. For example, in Morteros, where participation fell 10 points (76% to 66%), the explanation, beyond apathy, has to do with the absence of people who decided not to travel to the town on that date.
How is this? Sebastián Demarchi explains it, the Peronist who won the elections and will be the new mayor.
“Beyond apathy, in this case the most important factor was in the people who do not live in Morteros. Many live in Córdoba or San Francisco, there was no free mobility, and they did not come. In addition, the date of the election was far from the end of the day, from Father’s Day, and from the provincial elections… ”, he detailed.
The ones that didn’t fall
There are two localities with differences. One is Marcos Juárez, who voted last year, in a different context than these days. Between the two elections (2018 and 2022), the town in the south of Cordoba barely lost 1 percentage point (from 70% to 69%), with two elections that presented great competition, including Governor Juan Schiaretti going to close the campaign in the last appointment.
The other was Sampacho, where the percentage of voters grew 10 points (58% to 65%). There, the context was different: the previous vote was in 2021, when the inhabitants of the southern town had to choose the successor to Flavio Juárez, who died of Covid.
The fall of the provincial participation
As stated at the beginning, if the participation of the 20 localities taken for this note is averaged (72.35% four years ago with 65.3% this year), the drop is 7.05 percentage points.
The curious thing is that the total participation in the last elections for governor of Córdoba, in 2019, reached 72.27%, similar to the average of the localities that this year already went to vote.
72.27% was the second lowest figure in the history of provincial elections, only surpassed by what happened in 2017, when the percentage reached 72.01%.
In the historical line, the most significant numbers date back to the return of democracy, when 88.35% of Cordoba voted for governor and vice president.
Since then, and until the last vote, participation has fallen 16 percentage points.
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