2023-07-05 06:01:00
Last Sunday, June 25, the elections for governor were held in the province of Córdoba. Together with them, the election to legislative positions was also held in hundreds of municipalities and communes.
In the case of the governorship, the expectation was focused on the two main political forces that polarized the election, to the point that there was a minimal and controversial difference in votes.
Faced with such a narrow margin, the failures of the electoral method manifested themselves exponentially, and a system that was not prepared for such a test left more doubts than certainties, which cast a cloak of darkness over the elective process.
The main problem became visible when the delay began when the forms obtained from the count of each of the polling stations were loaded. These failures were due to a lack of connectivity, equipment, personnel, and adequate technology. With the passing of the hours and the delay in loading, the tension, the problems and the lack of credibility increased.
The political forces and the people of Cordoba began on Monday the 26th without certainty regarding the electoral panorama. The conclusive testimonies were suspended, and the result of the election began to depend exclusively on the definitive scrutiny.
Until today, the people of Córdoba and the representatives of the partisan forces of the second province of the country find themselves in this situation by number of population and productive activity. With the uncertainty of a process that left more doubts than certainties, with a partially unprotected political right.
The challenge of Cordoba
On Wednesday, June 28, one of the main electoral authorities of the Province of Córdoba argued that part of the problems in the electoral system on Sunday the 25th had been caused by the lack of time between the call for the electoral process made by Governor Juan Schiaretti and the impossibility of contracting a system due to the constant maneuvering of dates generated by the pro-government force for the benefit of its candidate.
Any Cordovan who remembers can easily remember how the date of the elections was used in a speculative way, both the one of the Province and the one of the Capital, to the point of being kept as a State secret and only known by the main pro-government leaders and their consultants.
In this new management shift that begins on December 10, this is a challenge and an outstanding debt on the part of the provincial leadership and the parties that will make up the Cordoba Legislature. It is necessary to establish a fixed date for elections, framed in a law that prevents officialist speculation.
Technical specialists, such as political scientist Daniel Zovatto, also spoke on this issue, who in his 2008 publication (“That’s the way it goes. Diagnosis and proposal for political-electoral reform of the Province of Córdoba”) already warned regarding the need for an improvement institution in the province and stressed that fixing the election date was a measure to be carried out.
Finally, and in an analysis that emerged from the dialogue with the prosecutors of the political forces and voters on the same election Sunday, a difficulty was heard both for the count and for the issuance of the vote. This is evident in the number of votes appealed, total or partial invalid. It is necessary to modify a ballot that at this moment confuses the electorate when it casts its vote, and that harms the accounting of prosecutors and table presidents.
Restore confidence
On Sunday, June 25, 2023, only 68.27% of the total register authorized to vote went to the polls. This represents an absence greater than 30%, which translates into close to one million people. It was the election for governor of Córdoba with the lowest participation since the return to democracy.
If the number of blank votes is added to this low percentage, not only in the governor column, but also in the following categories, such as single-district legislators, departmental legislators, and account tribunes, one sees how the willingness of electoral expression decreases . This means at least two things:
-The first is the supremacy of the personalist campaign for governor over the other sections. This emphasizes an excessive preponderance of the figure of the Executive Power over the other bodies, which displaces the importance of the other powers of the State from the scene.
-The second, the lack of knowledge and interest of the people regarding the electoral offer and representatives of the people. However, regarding the lack of interest, the political leadership has a major responsibility.
The erosion in the interest of the citizenry and the prestige of the political leadership is multi-causal. Managements with extensive mandates without resolution of priority problems, institutional uncertainty, excesses of unfulfillable promises, lack of competition for the occupied places and transfers of party spaces only for the conservation of positions and to perpetuate themselves under the blanket of the State, are some of the reproaches that citizens do.
To recover trust, it is necessary to return to the conviction that the politics of social transformation, coherence and institutionality promulgate as values. Although some men and women leaders understand the importance of citizen trust, others do not seem to care and abuse practices that discredit a noble work.
It is time to resume the path of institutionality and accurate, efficient and orderly work, in order to solve priority problems and give society the answers it requires on time and in a proper way, leaving aside once and for all vanities. personal impact on the quality of democracy in Cordoba and Argentina.
* National Deputy Radical Civic Union Together for Change
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#Institutionality #certainty #rebuild #trust
