The Big Vote

Quito

As I was sitting in the OVT, monitoring the activity of Tungurahua Volcano, the rest of the country were voting. It was a referendum, based around 10 questions that you had to vote just a YES or a NO to. The first thing is - everyone has to vote and if you don't you get fined by the government. Second, all voting took place on one day (a Saturday), but you can't go to your local voting pole, no, you have to travel back to the town you were born in!!! Thus, Friday night and Saturday morning, Ecuadorians were darting all over the country to get back to home-towns, some of which was their first visit in over 30 years!!! That weekend was chaos.

The questions were cleverly designed so generally a person would vote YES to all or NO to all depending on their political views. Of course, you didn't have to do that - you could answer each question seperately with a yes or no, but based on the results that came out - it was clear that no-one really did that. I didn't have to vote of course, but from what locals told me - the questions were structured in a very complicated manner. You had to go on-line to read the full details of them, where there were pages and pages of literature behind each question. You can imagine how many people in Ecuador have internet access and go on-line to read pages and pages of documentation. Many people in the country can't read and for those people, they had to vote by placing a thumb-print next to the YES or NO box.

The questions were designed in a way that if the majority voted YES - then the current president here, Rafael Correa would essentially have more political power. If they voted NO, then he wouldn't. Some of the questions really sturred up some emotion in the locals here too - like wether bull fighting should be banned or not. Weeks before the vote, graffiti went up all over Quito. Street walls, houses and shops were covered in paint, as people tried to get their voices heard. People also paraded in the streets, with banners emblazoned with a giant YES or NO on them. This referendum really got people enthused out here.

In the end, the majority voted YES overall, although it was pretty close for each of the questions, generally by winning with a 50 something percent. A few days later, apart from the lingering graffiti, people resumed their lives like nothing had ever happened - as always, life goes on.......................and so did mine!!!