argentina conference approved This week, new legislation was enacted to streamline the voting process in the country through the introduction of single paper ballots.
The new Single Paper Ballot (BUP), which will debut in the upcoming 2025 parliamentary elections, will replace Argentina's nearly 100-year-old personal paper ballot system with a single ballot containing all of the candidates in the election, allowing voters to cast their votes. Make it possible. Just mark the candidates of your choice.
The bill, led by parliamentarians from President Javier Millay's ruling party Freedom Forward (LLA), was passed on Tuesday with 143 votes in favor, 87 against, and five abstentions. The bill also received support from several opposition parties, but all but one leftist member of the Fatherland Union bloc firmly opposed the bill.
“This is a great day for democracy,” LLA lawmakers said after the bill's approval, saying the law “puts an end to corrupt practices” and making ballot theft one of the top issues. I gave this as an example. current system.
Under the old voting system, Argentina's political parties were responsible for designing, printing, and distributing them using public funds. individual Candidate ballots at voting centers. above election day, After identification, Argentine citizens are given an empty signed envelope before heading to a “dark room,” and depending on the nature of the election, voters receive one or more ballots individually printed on the envelope before casting their vote. I put in the paper. Inside the box.
According to Key criticisms of the old system included that funds given to political parties to print ballot papers were “in some cases used for other purposes,” according to local media. Monopoly by printing services. And the theft of ballots during elections required large supplies to guarantee replacements. The individual voting system was also criticized for hindering small parties that do not have the distribution capabilities of large parties.
of new The streamlined BUP system features a single official ballot paper printed and distributed by Argentina's Ministry of the Interior, with all parties participating in the election placed in columns and the positions to be elected placed in rows. The order of parties will be determined by lottery. All political parties and candidates are given the same space on the ballot paper. Voters must cross out the box for their chosen candidate.
According to experts quoted by Argentine news outlets infobaeBUP gives voters greater freedom in choosing candidates, giving them the option to cast individual votes for president and members of Congress even if they belong to different political parties or alliances, but experts say , this is done by cutting the ballot before placing it in the envelope. Voters can cast a “blank vote” by unchecking the box.
Argentina's president's office issued a statement Tuesday night celebrating the bill's approval, claiming it created a “debt of democratic institutions to the Argentine people.”
“Single-paper voting will put an end to the decadent voting system that prevailed in Argentina over the past 100 years, which benefits a political caste and requires citizens to perform the sacred act of voting. They encouraged all kinds of misery when called to polling stations,” the statement said.
“This new electoral instrument, which will begin to be used at the national level as soon as next year's parliamentary elections, will be the system that Argentines will use for the next 100 years to elect representatives of the new Argentina proposed by President Javier Millay. “There, fraud and electoral fraud will not dominate the political process,'' the statement continued.
The Argentine President's Office said: “In a new Argentina, with an orderly economy without inflation, without chronic budget deficits, with a security model that fights crime and a judicial system that puts an end to it, there will be a mandate-based voting system.'' I will,” he claimed. It follows a doctrine that favors criminals. ”
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan writer who chronicles life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
