Citizen consultations with almost 40 thousand voters, election processes of professionals used to constant displacements and a week with voting in 4 Latin American countries. And February is only the second month of the year…
“The advance of digital democracy is unstoppable”. These words, formulated by the director of the Democracia & Desarrollo Internacional Foundation, Elaine Ford, in an interview conducted by the EVoting team at the beginning of February, seemed to foretell what the month was going to be like. Because February, when activity in the southern region of the continent usually declines, was of an uncommon intensity. Ford, founder of the Peruvian organization with presence in 19 countries in the region, highlighted the impact that Electronic Democracy can have on the relationship between the citizen and the authorities: “it helps not only to empower the citizen and legitimize the authority, but also to create a climate of trust that is ideal to strengthen our democracy”, she said. See more here.
Professionals far from home: circus and health workers
From 8 countries -Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru- the new board of the Latin American Circus Federation was elected in early February. A few days later, the Circus Union of Chile also renewed its board of directors. Both entities made their debut with the use of remote electronic voting and both obtained more than 80% participation.
Meanwhile, from Visviri to Puerto Williams, more than 3,000 general practitioners in the Chilean area were called upon to elect their new board of directors electronically and remotely. Valentina García, national vice-president of the Association, said that carrying out this process with EVoting was “an excellent experience, a great change that has managed to democratize our entire association”.
Citizen consultations in southern Chile
“This participation is important because it is democratic”, said the Mayor of Temuco (Chile), Roberto Neira, on the consultation in that commune at the beginning of February in which 26,000 neighbors gave their opinion on the reorganization of the city center. “We are very happy (…) Temuco had never before developed a process of citizen participation like this, and at national level there had never been a consultation on street commerce”, detailed the communal chief.
Meanwhile, 12 thousand people participated in the citizen consultation on the construction of a dual carriageway in the region of La Araucanía, Chile, held during the third week of February. The Governor, Luciano Rivas, pointed out that “four communities spoke about a major project that impacts their quality of life. And they have clearly expressed what makes the most sense to them. This is how democracy is built, with dialogue, participation and the firm decision to listen to that voice to make it visible. We will never again leave people’s opinions in a drawer.”
Last week of February with voting in 4 Latin American countries
The processes in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Chile in the last week of February marked a milestone in EVoting’s regional expansion process. “It fills us with joy, it is unprecedented but also a natural consequence of the intense work we are developing throughout the continent,” said Felipe Lorca, Voting Manager of the company. See more here.