MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Concern over “protest” vote

Concern over “protest” vote

The Argentine government and political system are concerned about the significant number of voters that will spoil their ballots or simply not go the polls in this coming Sunday's legislative elections.

Opinion polls indicate that almost 20% voters in Buenos Aires City, 12% in Buenos Aires province and 8% in the rest of the country will be expressing this way their "protest" or negative vote, the highest since 1983.

Next Sunday Argentines will be voting to renew the Senate (72 seats) and half of the Chamber of Deputies (127 seats). The election was expected to attract a massive turnout since it will be the first time electors vote for Senators directly and the City of Buenos Aires, as the rest of the provinces, will be entitled to three members in the Upper House.

However the "protest" vote, even in a country where voting is compulsory, will reflect the growing disenchantment of the Argentine people with politics and the fact that serious problems such as unemployment, recession and public insecurity seem insurmountable for the current political class.Argentina is undergoing its longest recession in history and seven years of unprecedented unemployment rates, currently fringing 20%.

However political analysts believe that even with the growing tendency of the "protest" vote, that doubled from 3% to 5,97% in elections held in the nineties, the percentage of those not going to the polls or spoiling their ballots will be closer to historical averages."As polling day approaches there's a tendency for those numbers to drop, as has happened in other Argentine elections and in the recent election in Peru", said Mr. Rosendo Fraga.

Nonetheless opinion polls indicate that in this occasion the disenchantment percentage increases among the better educated and higher income voters meaning Buenos Aires City will record the highest "protest" vote.Further back in history, Argentina had record "protest" polling, --almost 25%-- in the late fifties and early sixties when the Peronist party was banned from elections.

"This negative attitude is telling us that the political quality of proposals has nothing to do with what people are demanding", said Nicolás Gallo, Argentina' presidency Secretary General.