Weekly Report - 23 September 2003
ARGENTINA: One in three voters just doesn't care
Abstention plus spoilt and blank ballots surpassed the `anger vote' that
marked the end for Fernando de la Rúa.
Though it is still not clear how many of the votes cast for the ruling Partido Justicialista (PJ) in the recent provincial elections were actually votes for President Néstor Kirchner [WR-03-36], one thing does emerge from an analysis of voting statistics: almost 30% of the electorate did not bother either to endorse or reject him — they simply didn't turn out to vote. Another 7% spoilt their ballots or cast blank votes: a more overt rejection, not just of Kirchner's camp but of all contestants. What some analysts have taken to calling the `negative vote', the sum of those two groups, added up to well over a third of the electorate.
The rejectionist contingent was larger than in the April presidential elections, and even than that in the October 2001 congressional elections, when the so-called voto bronca (anger vote) marked the beginning of the end for the government of President Fernando de la Rúa. Though voting is compulsory in Argentina, the penalty for abstaining is merely nominal and does not act as a deterrent. The simplest explanations on offer are apathy and an abiding mistrust of all parties and politicians. It has also been suggested that democracy is no longer the novelty it was in the early 1980s, after the long years of military rule. Yet another explanation is that, with the PJ so overwhelmingly dominant, there is not much to choose from.
Though it is still not clear how many of the votes cast for the ruling Partido Justicialista (PJ) in the recent provincial elections were actually votes for President Néstor Kirchner [WR-03-36], one thing does emerge from an analysis of voting statistics: almost 30% of the electorate did not bother either to endorse or reject him — they simply didn't turn out to vote. Another 7% spoilt their ballots or cast blank votes: a more overt rejection, not just of Kirchner's camp but of all contestants. What some analysts have taken to calling the `negative vote', the sum of those two groups, added up to well over a third of the electorate.
The rejectionist contingent was larger than in the April presidential elections, and even than that in the October 2001 congressional elections, when the so-called voto bronca (anger vote) marked the beginning of the end for the government of President Fernando de la Rúa. Though voting is compulsory in Argentina, the penalty for abstaining is merely nominal and does not act as a deterrent. The simplest explanations on offer are apathy and an abiding mistrust of all parties and politicians. It has also been suggested that democracy is no longer the novelty it was in the early 1980s, after the long years of military rule. Yet another explanation is that, with the PJ so overwhelmingly dominant, there is not much to choose from.
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