The only candidate for mayor of the La Fuerza de Todos front in the town of Tres Capones, Misiones, obtained a single vote in last Sunday's provincial elections. Irene Patricia Robi admitted that this vote was hers and said that in the dark room there were no ballots of her political space.
Robi said she was the victim of a deception by a brother and sister-in-law, who asked her to join the list of Kirchnerism but as a candidate for alternate councilor and two weeks before the elections, she learned that she had been registered as a candidate for mayor. "I signed a form that they brought to my house and nothing else. On that same list are two of my sisters-in-law and a niece," said Patricia, who is a housewife and never dabbled in politics.
The woman said that at the end of the scrutiny of the four tables that were in Tres Capones "I almost had a heart attack when I saw that I had only one vote."
"When I went to vote I took the ballot that I had left as a souvenir. When I entered the dark room I saw that there were no votes from the Force of All and I told my sister-in-law, who told me that they were going to replace but they never did," Robi told Radio News de Posadas.
Patricia's political adventure was almost discarded. "It all started on a Sunday. My brother and a brother-in-law called me and told me to leave as a candidate because they had to complete the list and they lacked an alternate to be able to take it to Posadas (to the Electoral Tribunal). Three days later they brought me a paper and I signed, but they never told me it was to be a candidate for mayor," Robi added.
"They never gave me money for the campaign or the food modules to distribute to the people," he said. The woman admitted that "I was not interested in being a candidate (for mayor), nor am I interested in politics," she said bluntly.
Patricia Robi voted alone and was the only vote she got in Tres Capones, province of Misiones
Robi also reported that his brother and a sister-in-law negotiated with a candidate for mayor of the ruling Frente Renovador to lower his candidacy. "They made an agreement with Ivan Korol because we didn't have the means to mobilize people. They told me that if I got off, the votes went to Korol and assured me that I would enter as a councilor with only 54 votes," he said. The ballot cutting did not happen because the Frente de Todos votes never reached the dark room.
"With what happened I was very bad, I am the mockery of the whole province. On Monday, I complained to my brother because our ballot was not there and he told me that I sold myself to (Ramón) Gerega," the mayor who was reelected.
"I never went out to ask people to vote. I only found out that a few days before the election a car with loudspeakers came out promoting my candidacy with a jingle," Robi said.
Robi's list was completed with the candidates for incumbent councilor Pedro Ríos, Rocío Zorrilla, José Márquez and Celina Robi; while Jorge Sosa, María González, Daniel Da Rosa, María Ferreyra and Jorge Fernández were substitutes. None of them voted for the list of the Front for the Force of All.
Of the 1,365 voters authorized to vote in four tables, 1,187 did so and the ruling party was the big winner. The current mayor obtained more than 800 votes and Korol, the candidate with whom Kirchnerism closed an agreement a few days earlier, just 150.
The political misadventure of Patricia Robi laid bare the problems that Kirchnerism and La Cámpora have for the electoral arming in the province. These difficulties meant that the two fronts identified with sector K garnered only 6.49% of the vote.
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