Voting

Voting / Regina Coyula
Regina Coyula, Translator: mlk

Only when I heard unusual noises next to my house, still before
daybreak, did I remember that yesterday they were holding elections for
delegates to the People's Power. The doorway of the house next to mine
was restored as a school in order to open from seven in the morning.
Without need of knowing the votes, I knew it would turn out that the
same delegate was re-elected, who I think is going for her third or
fourth term. She is a single mother who adds this additional burden to
her work and raising a teenage son, because no one else wants the post.

The nomination assemblies around here were meteoric;hardly any took
longerin search of an impressive alternative candidate. My attention was
drawn also to the fact that from my neighborhood, in all the places
whereIsaw candidate photos, there were two, in contrast with previous
years where there appeared a sizeable group of pictures with their
corresponding political biographies, but — and this ischaracteristic
nationally — no candidatereveals a plan, outlines a job, displays a
concrete programon being elected.

As I stopped believing in the project of the government years ago, I do
not vote. Yesterday, my neighborsfrom the polling station will have
detested us a little (a little more?) because through our fault they
kept the college open until the closing deadline. I am one step beyond
those who void their ballots orleave them blank, but this year, my son
for the first time, was of the requisite age to choose. He has just
entered the university as you already know, that's why I thought he
would feel compelled to vote. It was treated as a very personal decision
that we did not influence. He decided not to do it, but not for the
civic reasons of his mom and dad: As it is a right and not a duty, it
does not interest me.

At some point that indifference will stop. That will be when he feels
represented, or feels that his vote can make a difference.

Translated by mlk.

October 22 2012

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