Voting!

Sunday, October 3, was voting day for Peru (not a presidential election year, but all the other things, like governor, mayor, etc.). Everyone is required to vote –yes, it is required. Those who do not vote are assigned a big fee: S/80. That is a lot of money down here—nearly a week’s wage for a blue collar worker who has a good job. In the past it was a fee of S/300!

Voters are those who are 18 or older and have a DNI (national document of identity). Wherever you register for your DNI you are assigned a place to vote. When people move to a different region, they are supposed to get a new DNI and thus be registered to vote in the new region. However, many people, in particular the poor people, do not get a new DNI when they move (it is a long and expensive process) and must travel back to where they are registered to vote.

And so, like in the time of Jesus’ birth, many are traveling to the land of their ancestors (ok, so just the land where their DNI is registered) to vote. Some have returned to Iquitos from Pucallpa, which was a 5 day boat ride for them—one way! Some have only traveled a couple days to arrive at their voting place. We cannot even imagine how long and how accurate the tallying of votes is. Nothing is computerized…at least in the jungle.

There is an array of candidates to choose from and you are supposed to put an X through their little logo. We tried to count the number of political party logos we saw all over town, and we began to get confused at about 15. Some of the logos we remember are: a rooster, a tree, a motor, a barley, the number “1000”, an outline of the state of Loreto, a little house, a big “V”, a parrot, “CARP”, etc. One candidate—who is the current equivalent of state governor (el presidente regional)—promises that if he wins, those who vote for him and have a certain sticker on their wall will get a new roof on their house. His party canvassers leave those stickers with many houses in poor neighborhoods. My thoughts on this bribery: Buddy, you’re already in office! Why not give them a good roof now, if that’s what you’re all about! Some candidates go to poor, isolated villages, bring cases and cases of alcohol and provided a drunken party for the whole village. Vote for me!

We’ve asked many people who they are going to vote for and no one has given us an answer besides “I dunno”. We have never seen or heard about any political debates, many don’t know what each party stands for…I guess you just vote for your favorite picture! Hooray for democracy!