Word: campaigners
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...another pollster, Daniel Lund of Mund Americas, says the campaign may be the beginning of major change in Mexican politics. While there may only be a small percentage of people who actually make the effort to go and annul their ballots, he predicts that the overall abstention rate will be a shocking 70%. "Politicians will not be able to ignore a level of turnout that low," he says. Lund says the voto en blanco supporters could then go on to form a new political opposition along with disaffected members of the main parties. "This movement is a response...
...campaign reflects widespread disillusionment with the nation's young democracy just nine years after Mexico ended seven decades of one-party rule. Like Eastern Europeans, Mexicans hoped that opening up their political system would bring them better-paid jobs and safer streets. Instead, they have seen a wave of kidnappings, daily shoot-outs among drug gunmen and crowds of jobless; this year some analysts predict that the economy will shrink by more than 8%, the worst drop since the Great Depression. (Read about why Mexico's tourist industry seems cursed...
...while video evidence has shown prominent politicians stacking wads of dollar bills into briefcases or extorting businessmen, the same candidates keep beating the courts and getting back on the ballot. For the voto en blanco movement, Mexico has swung from dictatorship to a kleptocracy. One YouTube video for the campaign shows supposed politicians from the three main parties laughing as they tear into a cake shaped like Mexico. (See pictures of the tunnel technology of Mexico's drug cartels...
Such rejection of the system has rattled the establishment. Officials at the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) have been running an expensive campaign calling on people to vote and are unhappy about now having to argue their point. "To consolidate our democracy, we need more participation, not less," says IFE councillor Arturo Sanchez. The Roman Catholic Church has also spoken out against the movement, with one bishop calling it "stupidity." And several politicians have attacked its advocates as being "irresponsible" for encouraging people to shirk their civic duty...
...successful is the voto en blanco campaign? The Demotecnia survey found only 3% of respondents saying they would deliberately annul their vote, suggesting the loud campaign is having a limited effect. "This is a very élitist movement of university professors and wealthy young people on the Internet," says Demotecnia president Maria de las Heras. "The media are covering it so much because it is something fun and different. But it will not have any long-term impact on Mexico's political system...