The primary elections for mayors and governors ended this Sunday with almost 300 thousand votes cast nationwidethose who represent the participation of only 6.19% of the 4.8 million voters summoned.
In 99.5% of the tables scrutinized that correspond to the municipal primariesthe total vote is calculated in 295,379 votes.
This number is considerably reduced in the case of gubernatorial candidateswhich were elected only in the regions of Coquimbo and Aysén, and whose voting reaches the 31,414 voteswith 98.5% of the tables scrutinized.
The last mayoral primarymade in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, achieved a 4.37% share; This corresponded to 147,681 voters.
The previous gubernatorial primaryalso carried out in 2020, obtained a 2.87% sharewith 415,079 votes.
The political scientist Pamela Figueroa He explained that “in previous primary elections, more than 5% have never voted, a little more. Furthermore, the rain… In general, elections for mayors and governors are not so competitivefor example, like the presidential elections, which is where they invite more people to participate.
While the political analyst Christopher Bellolio He maintained that “it is not that people are irresponsible or have little civic virtue. People do not necessarily have to feel called to participate at a party that they interpret to be someone else’s. “It is generally considered to be a way through which the coalition resolves a problem that it was not able to resolve through negotiation.”
From the political parties, Alejandra Kraussnational secretary of the Christian Democracy, regretted that “we would have liked much more participationbut we understand that the characteristics of the primaries, in addition to their very novel nature in our political system, so we must strengthen the participation process and ensure that citizens understand.”
Finally, the general secretary of the PPD, Jose Toroindicated that “we have an institutional challenge, not only on the part of the State, to improve communication, the publicity of the primaries and also of all the political parties to generate the primaries as a mandatory mechanism that allows us to define the candidates and that the citizens participate even more. More democracy implies greater citizen participation and that is without a doubt through the exercise of the vote.”
