In 2003, on the 20th anniversary of the return of democracy and with a country that was resurfacing with split elections in the province of Buenos Aires, I received for the first time the telegram to participate as a board member. To which I attended with great enthusiasm.
By a family mandate of my mother, who was president of the table in 1973 and 1974 and who told me in a serious voice: "You are going to be a teacher, this is going to accompany you throughout your career, it is going to be a function that you will never have to do not". And the voice of a father, who was a member of the Argentine Naval Prefecture and on several occasions has taken care of the establishments where voting was held, who said: "I fulfilled your duty", and some time before passing away in 2020, told me: "Whoever argues with you with the vote count having gone through fourteen elections, No one from any political party is going to be able to tell you anything."
Along with a wonderful civic education received in high school and an influence of the Catholic Church who always expressed the need to take charge of responsibilities and to take elections as an opportunity to serve others.
"In a key year, my question is, what happened to us as a society?" says reader Sebastian Dugo.
In these elections, within the framework of the 40 years of democracy, already fulfilling functions of director of a primary school, I will have as in 2021 the great responsibility of being an electoral delegate, a position occupied by the conductions of schools and / or various places of voting with the responsibility of coordinating the development of the election, working side by side with the security forces and the Argentine Post Office, advising the table presidents, receiving the ballot boxes, setting up the dark room and maintaining order within the school establishment.
Well, having said all this, in a key year, my question is, what happened to us as a society? What about the media that does not highlight at all the role of the people who carry out the elections and all the time talk about the audit campaign for fear of fraud? Why is this not visible anywhere, not even from those young journalists who have YouTube channels and are supposedly the renewal and have shown me that my approach has no coherence?
Arrival of the ballot boxes to the schools of the center of Rosario for the elections. Archive 2021Photo: JUAN JOSE GARCIA
It is worrying to hear many colleagues talking about the dark age of the dictatorship, and when they receive a telegram they do not attend. Once I heard someone showing the film "The Night of the Pencils", that same teacher did not receive the telegram, she changed her identity because she considered that she was a waste of time on a Sunday. Lack of coherence and absolute morality, and so many cases can be cited. Nobody, absolutely no one makes visible the work that is done and the importance that the positions of the electoral tribunal are more relevant than a partisan prosecutor, who, although they are necessary, but they do not manage the election and there are authorities to respect.
No one shows the inhumane way in which the security forces, who play a transcendental role, spend almost two days without sleep until they are transferred to the polling stations like the staff of the Argentine Post Office who pay him misery and do not even give him the next day franc. And the Police?, which is circulating since dawn to be able to guarantee access to the institutions, or that the electoral delegate that I mentioned above is a constant that is who has the responsibility of removing the first voter from the line for lack of table presidents and, vocals and substitutes and endure the anger of the people until they receive kicks.
A table prosecutor at a school in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I say, how long is this going to keep happening?
I think that in this 2023 we must start with a great campaign of awareness and citizen responsibility. And the media must have a preponderant role, and also raise awareness that fraud can occur if the table presidents do not go or if there are no delegates. And to place in their place the political spaces as well as to celebrate a democracy as it really corresponds and that are many years of an uninterrupted democracy.
I think that the time is now to start disseminating, and that there is also a voluntary register of table authorities. Added to who does not show up to be a little stricter in the call for attention.
If this is carried out, we will be contributing to a fairer society, without cracks and with full rights so that with these responsibilities we put a grain of sand and Argentina moves forward, not all the blame placing it on the rulers. And in the case of my colleagues, remember that we are citizens of the city. I, as always, fulfill what I do with my conscience in peace.
Sebastian Leonel Dugo / sdugo@abc.gob.ar
THE EDITOR'S COMMENT
By César Dossi
No place for eternal armchairs
On December 10, 2023, the new president will take office. It is a key year. Therefore, on August 13, the PASO (Primary, Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory) will be held, an instance prior to the general elections. Meanwhile, the general elections are on October 22 and, in case of a runoff, the vote will be on November 19.
In August, the lists of pre-candidates that each political party presents to compete in the general elections will be voted. These lists are made up of candidates for national deputies, national senators, governors, mayors, councilors, among others.
But this voting system, the PASO, has been the subject of debate in recent years. Some political sectors consider that they are an expensive mechanism and that it does not fulfill its objective of selecting the best candidates. Others, on the other hand, defend it as an instance of citizen participation and transparency. A disastrous presidency ends, sprinkled by Covid and K corruption, and the inflation that injected that suffering that was reflected in every household in the country.
It is that April was the highest monthly data in 20 years, and exceeded all forecasts: it jumped to 8.4% due to the run of the dollar, and with 19% of society spending more than it earns.
It is up to the reader and teacher Sebastián Dugo the responsibility of being in the most important electoral process in Argentine history because, also, on December 10 when a new president takes office, Argentina will celebrate 40 years of democracy.
That is why the importance of this civic duty. Because this exercise guarantees that we have a voice and that our voices will be heard in order to build the country we need, with education without protests, with well-equipped hospitals, with debt-free economies. It is not a utopia.
This right is linked to other human rights such as freedom of expression and opinion. It is also the one that allows us to choose who represents us in front of the world, this time, for some, without room for eternal armchairs.
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