Only 968 Zacatecans living abroad have registered to exercise their right to vote in the elections to be held on June 5, according to information from the electoral authorities. While the countrymen accuse bureaucracy to achieve participation, representatives and institutions consider the numbers discouraging.
Brenda Mora Aguilera, president of the Zacatecans Abroad Voting Commission of the Zacatecas State Electoral Institute (IEEZ), admitted that this figure is low, given that there are approximately 49 thousand credentials given to those living abroad. .
He added that the electoral institute has registered applications in at least 120 countries and 38,000 of the identification documents have been delivered, that is, more than double those that have been confirmed as received.
He recalled that, in the elections for the change of governorship in 2016, the IEEZ counted 357 migrants interested in voting, “but we only received 80 effective votes” from this sector, out of the 674 thousand 763 counted in those elections.
This was due to the fact that the countrymen did not cast their vote, or that there were problems with the postal service that did not allow the votes to arrive in accordance with the provisions of the electoral law.
“This time there is the possibility of electronic voting, although countrymen can also choose to send the vote by mail,” explained Mora Aguilera; therefore, he insisted that “the figures are not so encouraging.”
The president of the Committee on the Vote of Zacatecans Abroad recalled that, at the national level, since 2006 there is this option for nationals: “in that year 33,000 votes were received in the federal election and for 2012 there were 41,000 ”.
He added that, after the reforms to the electoral law, which included senators and governorships, “a participation of 98,954 migrants who voted from 120 countries was achieved, which shows that the interest of Mexicans is increasing.”
In addition, in an effort to maintain the interest of migrants to participate in the electoral processes, the deadline was extended and “the closing of the registration to vote will be held on March 10.”
However, the procedures have been hampered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, “so these figures close to 49 thousand procedures have remained there and we think it is because of this situation.”
He recognized that the legal obligation that countrymen must go to register on the nominal list in embassies and consulates “creates annoyance”; however, he argued that the institution is obliged “to verify that each registered person actually lives abroad and is not a simulation.”
Despite the low turnout, Mora Aguilera affirmed that “this vote is important, that they have interference in determining an election or that their interests are reflected. I think that’s where we’re going, but it will depend on your participation.
Obstacles
Sigifredo Muñoz, president of the Federation of Zacatecan Clubs of Fort Worth, Texas, declared that the process to receive the credential and register in the registry is very complicated and the necessary dissemination has not been given.
“The process to get the INE is very complex for those who are outside the country, you have to request it, it arrives by mail, you confirm and then they enable you, then they must register on the nominal list.”
He assured that 95 percent of the credentialed countrymen in the United States do not know the bureaucratic process they have to go through to register for each election. “It is something that we have already asked the electoral authorities: that the credential that migrants have is the same as the one our relatives have in Mexico, without so many locks.”
Zacatecas ranks sixth in the registry of Mexicans to vote from abroad before the National Electoral Institute (INE), behind Mexico City (6,159), Jalisco (2,959), Michoacán (2,319), Guerrero (1,586) and Chihuahua ( 1,179).
Muñoz said that the process makes few Zacatecans want to participate, despite the dissemination and forums that are held together with the INE and IEEZ. “The institutes say that we migrants are to blame, that we did not want to participate, that it cost them a lot of money, but it must be simplified and there must be an education campaign.”
He described as favorable the disposition of the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judicial Power (TEPJF), which ordered the INE affirmative actions for the migrant community.
The TEPJF reached an agreement in a session on February 24, where it was stated: “The INE must design and implement affirmative actions for Mexican people residing abroad in the present electoral process, and who participate in the proportional representation lists of each of the multi-member constituencies ”.
The migrant leader emphasized that they will be attentive to the political parties to make an integration of representatives that are part of the binational community that Zacatecas has. “It would be very easy to throw the bells into the air, but we want them to really be migrants and not pretend. We know that each party is going to take certain actions, but there must be a filter ”, he warned.
He recognized that the TEPJF agreement is a great advance for the inclusion of the migrant community in decision-making in Mexico and specifically in Zacatecas. He opined that, although there are two spaces for the community in the State Congress, “it is not enough representation, because we have been very forgotten and there is no equity.”
“In the case of Zacatecas, half of the state’s population is here, but there is no equitable representation, not even 20 percent, so we want to see the real actions to comply with the ruling,” he stressed.
Sigifredo Muñoz reiterated that Zacatecas and its municipalities have a binational spirit, where they must be taken into account for the appointment of authorities, “having a voice and vote, in addition to the right to be elected.”
With locks and against the clock
The migrant deputies of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), Lizbeth Márquez Álvarez and Felipe Delgado de la Torre, respectively, agreed that the low participation of those living abroad, particularly in the United States, is discouraging.
Márquez Álvarez explained that one of the barriers is excessive bureaucracy to achieve registration on the nominal list, which is why he considered it necessary to simplify the procedure to encourage participation. “While those who live in Mexico in two steps manage to obtain their voter credential, those who live outside the country must complete up to six.”
The PRI member clarified that there is no indifference of the countrymen living in other parts of the world, but that “it is a matter of logistics, because the right is guaranteed.”
Delgado de la Torre mentioned that it is disheartening that the migrants demand economic participation and do not correspond with the civil one. “We have done many campaigns to promote the vote and we barely have a little over a thousand registrations,” he reproached. The one from Morena added that from the federations “little can be done, because in each one there are no more than 500 members.”
Both legislators recalled having urged the National Electoral Institute (INE) to postpone the closure of migrant registries and allow greater dissemination of the credentialing processes abroad.
They agreed that the promotion of these registries was carried out on short notice. “If the term is extended, we could have up to 90 more days to encourage migrant voting,” said Felipe Delgado.
Necessary, recognition
The state leaders of the National Action (PAN) and Labor (PT) parties, Noemí Berenice Luna Ayala and Alfredo Femat Bañuelos, respectively, agreed on the need for greater participation of migrants in the processes so that they are a determining factor.
Luna Ayala explained that migrants, particularly those who live in the United States, “have great economic strength and to a large extent depend on the state’s economy, so it is fair that they can exercise the right to vote.”
Femat Bañuelos considered that the low participation is a consequence of the disdain that migrants have experienced by governments. As an example, he mentioned the disappearance of the 3 × 1 Program, since he questioned the use of resources sent by the countrymen.
He considered that there will be a greater importance to the participation of the countrymen “when they seek to get more involved in the political life of the state and play a defining role in the electoral processes.”
Raymundo Carrillo Martínez, state leader of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), that one way to assess the contribution of the sector is to “give them the right to vote because, although not all migrants take advantage of it, it has a weight here with their families”.
Regarding the real weight that migrants have in electoral processes, he mentioned that even when participation is low, “even one vote defines, each vote is important.”
“In addition, not only because of the technical definitions, but also because of what the scope implies, the validity it keeps and, of course, the social, economic, financial and legal importance of progress in the face of migration in the world and in Zacatecas where We are an outpost, in that criterion it is very important ”, he concluded.
luyó.
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