Our Thoughts on Colombia's Recent Presidential Election

Molly: Before voting day:

We haven't been that exposed to a ton of campaigning. In our own neighborhood of Carlos E, there are several Mockus posters, and most of the compañeros lean pretty strongly towards Mockus, but the families appear to be conservative and it seems to be pretty obvious that Santos will win. Perhaps this is why I haven't seen a lot of campaigning - it doesn't seem like a tight race.

Voting day:

We began the walk to the local colegio around 10:15 AM with Cassidy's family - Merce, Enrique, and the two other students living there, Angelica and Angela Maria. The walk was fun - Merce stopped every couple of seconds, even if it was in the middle of the street, to chat with all of their friends who were either heading home after voting or on their way as well. It's amazing how close of a community Carlos E seems to be. Anyway, between stopping to chat and a slower walking pace in general, it took probably about 5 times longer than it should have to get to the school (where Uribe, Juanes, and a famous Colombian cyclist all studied! but the most famous of all: my hermanito, Santi). I have seen and heard more young people excited about voting here than in the US but this may just be because our compañeros are really gung-ho about Mockus, and as I learned later, there are myriad benefits to voting as a university student. Skipping ahead to the actual process of voting: it is very different. Usually, you register first with your cellphone number, but if you don't, you can register on site before voting. Then, you look for your name and number on the map of table locations within one of the school's courtyards. Upon locating your voting table, you head over, and the people working on site take your fingerprint and hand you a ballot with the faces of the 2 candidates. You take the ballot to a little cardboard set-up and put a big x over the face of the candidate you want, either Santos or Mockus in this case, then simply fold it in half and put it in the slot of a small cardboard box. No computers. No confusing ballots necessitating hole punching. Simply X marking the spot. It seems so simple compared to the system in the US.

Andrei:

When I asked Natalie about why the election was important, I could not really predict her response. The first thing she said was that it was important “para mantener democracía,” that is, to maintain democracy. That blew my mind. I immediately thought about the way I would have responded if someone had asked me why the presidential election this past November would have been important. I probably would have responded this way:

ME: Well, I think voting is important because it is important to actively help choose who will be the leader in command for policies that may affect you in the long run. Since I am a bit more cynical about politics than the average person (which says a lot), I usually vote for the lesser of two evils (usually the Democrat). Either way, usually nothing too drastically will change in the country for me to firmly decide that one party is live or die for me.

Would I have ever said I needed to decide between John McCain and Barack Obama in order to conserve democracy? Absolutely not. We have been a stable democracy for so long it would be absurd to even think that it is at risk. But in other places, such as Colombia, where democracy and freedoms haven’t been so clear-cut for a long time, maintaining democracy is probably the most important measure. In actuality, it is the most important for us as well. We are just so privileged that we sometimes don’t acknowledge how lucky we are to have the guarantee of democracy, and therefore we need not discuss that. But to people here like Natalie, maintaining democracy is a battle that continues to this day.

Carolina: On Election Day, we went with one of our compañeros and her boyfriend to vote at a school. We parked the car a few blocks away and walked to the entrance. There were many people walking in the street with us to vote or having just come from voting. Since the elections were on a Sunday, everybody was home and they went to vote together. So we saw many groups walking together; husbands, wives, and neighbors. It was a much more pleasant, social, and unhurried experience than I thought it would be.

Katrina: This past week we were asked to interview someone about the elections that occurred last Sunday. I asked Viviana, a Colombian university student who also lives with my host family, to share her thoughts with me on the subject. Viviana didn’t vote in the elections because she is from Pereira, which is four hours away, and her work schedule did not permit her to make the drive. She spoke briefly about the elections, giving an overview of both candidates and the results, explaining that Santos, who was elected president, plans to continue Uribe’s policies that have governed Colombia for the last eight years.

Stephen: The Medellin election had a few details that made it an interesting experience to live through. One of our Colombian friends mentioned to us that voter turnout is low, only about 50%. Of course in the US, this turnout is much lower. Colombian students also have incentives to vote: a reduction in tuition and a shorter military service requirement. An additional detail was the prohibition on alcohol consumption three days prior. Because elections in Colombia always take place on Sunday, this causes nightlife businesses to basically come to a standstill. A few of our Colombian friends associated this with a more pensive population leading up to the election.

Cassidy: