Word: voting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Dubbed the voto en blanco, or "blank vote," the curious movement emerged on blogs and in YouTube videos when campaigns kicked off last month. Since then it has snowballed, with prominent intellectuals and several politicians themselves joining its ranks. Its simple message: the whole political system stinks, so just draw one big cross on the ballot sheet on July 5, when the country has to choose the federal Senate and 500-seat lower House, six governors and hundreds of state and municipal offices. "Voting for the least bad candidate is like buying the least rotten fruit," says Jose Antonio Crespo...
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...
...certain parties. Pollsters consider that a low turnout would favor the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ran Mexico for 71 straight years until 2000 and still has the largest number of card-carrying members. A survey by polling firm Demotecnia predicts that the PRI will carry 36% of the vote on election day, while President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party will drop to 31% and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party will get a meager...
...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...
...assumed that the Iranian presidential election was rigged, but it is impossible to know how heavily the government's thumb rested on the scales. It is entirely possible that Ahmadinejad would have won anyway, but narrowly, perhaps with less than 50% of the vote, setting up a runoff election he might have lost as the other candidates united against him. It is possible that his government, perhaps acting in concert with Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, decided to take no chances. (Read "The Man Who Could Beat Ahmadinejad: Mousavi Talks to TIME...