You may recall a change in the electoral law few years ago during the Bachelet administration that allowed non-resident Chileans living abroad to vote in presidential elections at their local Consulate. This idea was based on the cynical assumption that most of these voters, for example the families of commies exiled during the military government, would opt for left-wing candidates.
In that case, the number of votes involved is pretty insignificant, but once again this government wants to tinker with the electoral laws to improve their electoral chances, and this time the effect will be much greater.
The Boric government proposes restricting the voting rights of foreigners resident in Chile to municipal, and not presidential elections.
With a naive miscalculation, they had initially assumed that these resident foreigners, being mainly economic refugees, would naturally favor the parties that proclaim their “solidarity” with the poorer sections of the population.
But immigrants, especially the Venezuelan and Cuban elements, have seen the outcome of leftwing regimes at first hand, and have no intention of voting for more of the same in Chile. As a result, as this poll shows, they overwhelmingly favour Right-Wing candidates.
This is obviously not what Boric & Co want to see happening, and they propose limiting foreign resident voting rights as a countermeasure. They obviously don’t see a contradiction between allowing nonresident Chileans living abroad to vote, while stopping resident foreigners in Chile from voting in the same elections. Or if they do, they are ignoring it.
Its brazen electoral manipulation, but that can only be expected from a government which has shown no moral scruples whatever.
They will try to do everything possible—and the impossible—in electoral engineering to avoid a catastrophic defeat. I believe it will be useless; Chile is mostly right-winged today.
Los merluzos están fritos…
Some of the media reports on the perceived attitudes of the Boric government are worth following. One of the deputies, Juan Carlos Meza, had this opinion of Boric and the matter of immigration in general. Rough translation:
“ [Boric] …has shown disdain for legal and orderly immigration and still tries to punish [particularly] those who entered through authorized means, complying with the law, who are a real contribution to the country, … people who come to work and who intend to stay and live in our country,”.
“But when it comes to establish rules, to erect barriers for illegal aliens so that hopefully they will leave, [including] physical barriers at the borders to prevent them from entering, this Government is unwilling. The [Boric] government offers a white glove to illegal immigrants and a boxing glove to treat the legal immigrant”
Although I generally agree with the concept that individuals with legal residency of five or more years and no criminal record have the option of voting in all levels of elections, the feature of automatic registration and periodic obligatory voting (e.g., plebiscites) is a bit anomalous for such (presumptuous) Third World countries.
If Chileans took their civic obligations more seriously, compulsory voting wouldn’t be necessary. But many just can’t be bothered.
In the 2020 voluntary vote to approve constitutional change, only 51% of the electorate turned out. Of those, 78% voted in favour , which meant that 40% of the electorate were able to provoke Chile’s potentially biggest national and institutional shakeup in over 100 years.
Luckily it all fizzled out - eventually. But there’s too much “democracy” managed by the corrupt in Chile for their own selfish ends. As elsewhere.
You might have made these points earlier, so pardon the redundancy:
It is my understanding that at present, a foreigner with permanent residency is not permitted to vote in any election while outside of Chile, as a Chilean citizen is allowed to do.
That includes the “mandatory” elections such as plebiscites. A permanent resident is not subject to fines for not voting, when that resident is provably outside of CL on election day.
This debate festers on. Faced with the legal difficulties of prohibiting resident foreigners from voting, a new initiative contemplates a voluntary vote for residents, while retaining the compulsory vote for Chilean citizens(!)
The Resident voting sentiment has proven to be strongly anti left-wing, so by not obliging them to vote, this government hopes that less of them will do so, a move that shows just how desperate their attempts to cling to power have become.
That they could even contemplate removing the “right”, or rather obligation, to vote - one that that was imposed on Residents with fines for non-compliance - is just another example of the arbitrary way political decisions are made here.
This latest attempt to skew voting is just more of the same.
Giving these clowns even more control over my life is one of the reasons I will never become a Chilean citizen.
But even if this initiative prospers, at least some residents are mobilizing opinion to get out and vote. Please do the same!
Honestly, I think that would backfire on them, anyway. It wouldn’t surprise me if a higher contingent of left-wing immigrants stayed home than right-wing.
I’m tired of all this shit, I have already cleared my calendar to vote in November and December.
Amnesty for 10s of thousands of illegals after all the hoops I had to go through to be a LEGAL resident? Are you fuckin’ shitn’ me? And the fact that I know how Chile used to be circa 2001?
Yeah fuck all the 18-40 years old dicks who call me a facho.
I hear you. To get PR, I was interviewed by the PDI, was asked to write an autobiography, and had to produce a year’s worth of payroll stubs from my then-employer.
Changed days, indeed.
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This illegal perla, allegedly a hired killer, was accused of homicide, and locked away, but was then released from preventive detention , and is now on the run.
Chile needs an “Alligator Alcatraz” as well.
And this situation only became public some days after the event when a lawyer representing another member of the gang protested that his client hadn’t been released in the same way. No doubt he’s long gone, back to Venezuela or Colombia.
