| | |  Editorials | Issues | June 2009 
Mixed Reactions Abound on Mexico's Void Votes
 The News (with wire reports)
go to original
June 25, 2009
| | (Rumbo de Mexico/Arturo Acuaa) | |
A current movement to chastise political parties in the upcoming July 5 elections by issuing unmarked ballots into the boxes, which would automatically be void, was blasted Wednesday by President Felipe Calderón during a gathering on national security.
"The old phrase that says people have the government they deserve has to do with political participation," Calderon told an enthusiastic audience.
"We don't believe that keeping the citizens away from politics is going to help any. Let us not allow this path to get any wider for temptations may arise to have authoritarian regimes which have done so much damage to our nation."
President Calderón stated that in the long run "suffrage is important, indispensable." This was the first time Calderón referred to the void ballot movement.
He pleaded with voters to get out and vote on July 5 and instead of issuing empty votes "get involved in the internal life of political parties as a means to improve the nation and "close the gap" between politicians and citizens.
On a separate front, street vendors leader Teresa González of the Neighbors and Merchants of Cuauhtemoc Borough said that small leaders like herself had mixed reactions on blank voting but that they all are calling upon their followers to go to the polls.
She says she has called upon her several hundred followers to "lend deaf ears" to those calling for a blank vote and to get out and vote because "to issue a blank vote, makes no political propositions which serve the people".
Reconsidering, on the other hand, she added that people should really ponder their vote but after analyzing all the candidates "if they want to void their vote, have them do it. But what is a fact is that people have to go to the polls and vote, and make their silence count."
Gonzalez said she was tired of political parties using organizations like hers as "cannon fodder" because "we've been deceived for years by political party candidates who only show up around here at election time and when their turn to govern comes they leave our problems unattended."
That, however, she said, does not mean you don't get out and vote.
"We are requesting all citizens to really ponder on who they vote for and to do it as a project for their own future and their families".
The idea of issuing a blank vote, she said, is not to be against the system but to entice politicians to reflect on their actions.
"There is great disenchantment among the people." with the current cadre of politicians from the eight contending parties vying for public posts.
Teresa González added that many leaders of street vendors are promoting the blank vote in other city boroughs such as Atzcapotzalco and Miguel Hidalgo, but at all times they are urging people to vote on July 5.
"The reaction we get is that of confusion as the blank vote is a new political strategy, but in the end, each voter will have to make their own decision," González said. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us