MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

First voluntary vote at municipal elections in Chile; fears of a low turnout

A surprising 41% of Chileans said Sunday’s election was ‘irrelevant’

The Chilean municipal elections scheduled for Sunday 28 October are considered ‘important’ by 55% of interviews according to the primary result of a joint public opinion poll done by Mori and the Chilean Association of municipalities.

But a solid 41% consider them ‘irrelevant’ which could translate into a poor turnout Sunday and leading to some surprises because voting is voluntary, and some analysts don’t discard a shock for the political system.

Mori said that the 55% confirms the distance with which Chilean citizens perceive the electoral process and coincides with the estimates from other pollsters referred to the percentage that said they will effectively vote for mayor and councillors, 59%.

Likewise the poll shows that 39% of Chileans believes the incumbent mayor will be re-elected which contrasts with previous elections when 80% of those hoping to repeat effectively managed to retain their jobs.

For Mori these percentages could mean a massive misinformation about the election and politics confirming the growing lack of interest among the Chilean electorate with the process.

The disenchantment is supported by the 28% who consider the election ‘unimportant’ plus another 13% ‘absent of interest’, which adds up to the 41% that apparently consider the Sunday irrelevant and won’t turn out.

Going deeper into the first experience of voluntary vote in Chile, Marta Lagos from Mori warned that most probably low income people will not turn-up for the ballot and this could cause “a misbalance for the system”.

Ms Lagos said the implementation of the voluntary vote in Chile will most certainly follow an international rule which indicates that the poor don’t bother to vote and only the rich turnout.

“The new voters in the registry and which will effectively go to the polls are those with an income higher than the national average, people in a good position and less than 40 years of age. This leads to a qualitative re-composition of the electorate more than numerical”, explained Ms Lagos.

“This is bad for democracy since the poor don’t vote and because the people who take less advantage of the municipalities services are the poor, and leaves town hall for the rich. The poll showed that 37%, mostly low income ignored that municipalities have funds and programs to support those in need. The question is then, what kind of country do we pretend? Municipalities don’t reach out to the people, who ignore about promotion programs and this is bad for the institutions”.

Ms Lagos thus insists that voting must be compulsory and believes that following Sunday’s municipal election, “the political system will get scared and try to back step and mend the situation”.

“There are quite a few lawmakers who regret they supported the voluntary vote and I believe the election is going to cause panic in certain places because in some towns and villages, yes the mayor is voted in with 70%/80% but with a minimum turnout” pointed out the Mori analyst.

Asked why the support, Ms Lagos said that some lawmakers acted with a certain degree of ‘populism’ saying this “must be free, every Chilean has a choice, freedom, democracy, and freedom to cast or not cast his/her vote”.

Finally Ms Lagos said there are too many negative examples of voluntary vote impacts and sufficient to say “watch out”, since Chile is not in a moment of its history when the voluntary vote is going to have positive repercussions. None of the positive effects forecasted will happen”.

The Mori poll interviewed 1.200 people over 18 from Arica to Punta Arenas, during the first week of September with an error margin of plus/minus 3%.