Mexican Presidential Elections / My Experience Voting From Outside The Country
The Mexican presidential elections are set to take place on July 1st, 2018. To be able to vote from outside the country, I had to register online months ago. About a week ago I received a package that contained all the voting ballots, instructions, envelopes to return, and a very nice sticker stating that I participated in the election. Since I am outside the country, I have to submit my vote beforehand, and it needs to reach them before June 30th to be taken into account. This forced me to sit down and really ponder who should I vote for. This time around, deciding who to vote for has been more difficult than ever. As of May 18th the standings are:
- Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) 44%
- Ricardo Anaya Cortes 29.1%
- Jose Antonio Meade Kuribreña 20.2%
- Margarita Zavala 4.1%
- Jaime Rodriguez Calderon (Bronco) 2.6%
*Note that the addition of the percentages does not add up to 100%. This is because the numbers represent the average of several different polls.
This is how the ballot looks like:
By looking at the numbers, it is realistic to think that only the first three candidates have a chance of winning. Them being Obrador, Anaya, and Meade. Therefore, if I want my vote to have any sort of impact in this election, I should vote for one of these three people. Nevertheless, none of them convince me. More than that, I have specific reasons of why I do not want to vote for each one of them. Here is a little explanation for each.
- Obrador: he has become more radical with the years. Nowadays he is a complete populist without a strong economic plan to backup all the subsidies that he wants to apply. Furthermore, he is a hypocrite in how he portrays himself publicly. In such a corrupt environment like Mexican politics, he portrays himself as living a humble life without wasting more resources than the ones needed. Nevertheless, if you look at the riches that his children hold, they seem to have come out of thin air...
- Anaya: he represents the PAN. I would usually agree the most with this party. This time around I don't agree with them. Why? Because of its incongruence. To choose the candidate that will represent the party, internal elections are held. Somehow, for this election, internal elections were never held. He was selected out of pure influence and power, not in a democratic fashion. I can't bring myself to look past this.
- Meade: to me, the worst of them all. He was involved in a scandal where in Veracruz, kids who were being treated for cancer were being injected distilled water instead of their chemotherapy. Why? Because the politicians from the state had stolen so much money that they had run out of resources for the hospitals. If you want to read more about this, chech this link.
If these three are the ones with a chance of winning, who should I vote for then? I do not know. I might vote for someone else even though they do not have a chance of winning. In the end democracy is all about sharing your preference, even if this preference is not a popular option.
Sources:
- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Encuestas_de_intenci%C3%B3n_de_voto_para_la_elecci%C3%B3n_presidencial_de_M%C3%A9xico_de_2018
- http://www.sinembargo.mx/16-01-2017/3136985
Best,