“I don’t think I’m going to vote. That now is for young people, because I don’t know who the good ones are & rdquor;. Isaac Arroyo speaks calmly, shows an affable tone and explains himself clearly. His testimony leaves little room for imagination: this retiree from tudera will abstain in the elections of Castilla y León on February 13.
The political scene does not encourage him too much and the absence of electoral college in your locality does not help. If this Zamorano wanted to participate in the elections he would have to travel to Fariza by car or on the bus authorized by the Board for the cause. He won’t.
The minor local entity in Sayaguesa in which Isaac lives enables a social center to vote in municipal elections and, therefore, until this advance, also in regional ones. The separation of both processes will force the inhabitants of the place to travel more than six kilometers to Fariza, the municipal seat, to put the ballot in the ballot box. The change will affect the neighbors of another dozen nuclei of this type in the province of Zamora.
These minor local entities will join the more than 200 districts that lack an electoral college and whose inhabitants have to move, in each process, to be able to vote. The fear of the sixth wave of COVID, the possible lack of interest in the regional elections and the absence of a certain floating population during the winter come together to threaten a higher than expected abstention rate; especially in rural areas.
isaac brook explains that his concerns are more focused on “going to the garden or to the chickens & rdquor; than in thinking about who can preside or not the Junta de Castilla y León. His impression is that, in the environment, people think similarly. In towns like Tudera, where the residents who live together throughout the year can be listed with names and surnames in just a minute, there are no electoral posters, the campaign is far away and the message for the future winner is clear: “Don’t take away from us what we have & rdquor ;.
“Of forty that we will be around here, I calculate that four will vote & rdquor;
Just a few kilometers from there, in Villamor de la LadreIt’s hard to find a soul on the streets. The sun shines and calms the cold, but in half an hour only Lorenzo Carrascal makes himself heard, who stops the pruning at the neighbor’s house to offer his point of view. This sayagués habitually resided in Zamora capital until the pandemic dragged him to the town. Here he continues, for the moment, in a district belonging to Bermillo whose inhabitants do not vibrate with the elections either.
“Of forty that we will be around here, I calculate that four will vote & rdquor ;, predicts Lorenzo, who says not to exaggerate with the data. This neighbor points out that most of the townspeople are very old and remarks that the situation is discouraging: the cold, the covid and the galaxies that separate Sayago from the Courts make mobilization difficult. The mayors of the area must insist now to promote participation without the encouragement they have when the ballots also decide their future at the head of the city councils and the cocktail party is dangerous for the party of democracy.
“I am not going to vote for the PP, nor am I going to vote for Pedro Sánchez, and with the rest I share some things but not all”
the neighbor of Villamor de la Ladre It also underlines the lack of identification of the people with the existing political options: “I am not going to vote for the PP, nor for Pedro Sánchez, and with the rest I share some things but not all,” says Lorenzo, who perceives the same feeling among the countrymen with whom he shares the daily walk or the game they play when they agree to open the social center. The bar itself is long gone.
The inhabitants of Villamor de la Ladre vote in Vermiliona municipality where three schools will open on February 13: one in the capital, another in Torrefrades and one more in beat me. Among those tables the inhabitants of eight nuclei will vote. And they can be happy. Only 29 municipalities have more than one table, and among them there are several that lack districts, such as Zamora or Benavente.
There are cases like that of Rosinos de la Requejada, with ten nuclei and a single electoral college
On the contrary, there are cases such as Rosinos of the Requejada, with ten nuclei and a single electoral college, as Pedralba of the Praderia, which has five villages, but small and aged. In both places, abstention in the last general elections was above average, above 40%. The forecasts are now worse.
“People around here complain a lot, but at the bar. Sometimes I tell them to stop protesting at the table and go to City Hall or wherever.” The one speaking is Juan Carlos Ballesteros, one of the hoteliers who earns his living in a Fadon located at the foot of the road to Bermillo. This young man also joins the voices that predict high abstention, especially in Sayago: “I see that the people of Aliste and those areas are more vindictive than us & rdquor ;, he laments.
The mayors perceive the same boredom
The feelings of the people are similar to those perceived by the mayors of rural areas. They are forced to mobilize their people, given that almost all of them belong to the big parties, but reality pushes them to recognize that it will be more difficult than ever to convince them to participate, especially if they live in towns that lack electoral table: “We tried but, in other autonomous communities, the citizens came to vote more for the municipal ones & rdquor ;, comments the councilor of fonfríaSergio Lopez. In this municipality there will be two schools so that the inhabitants of eight nuclei can participate.
Lopez points out that the Board’s bus resource will be there, but another thing is the success it may have. The Territorial Delegation is drawing up the routes for travel to the voting centers and is expected to make them public soon. From there, citizens will have to do their part to get on and overcome laziness, discouragement and fear of the pandemic.
The one from Fonfría is not the only mayor who believes that there will be fewer residents than on other occasions willing to follow that process. The municipal officials of Fariza, Villanázar or Micereces de Tera, all with multiple cores, understand that there will be difficulties. The last of those mentioned, Carlos Martín, even points to the possibility that those who live in the capital and only have a walk to the polls abstain.
From the games, the idea continues to be to overcome difficulties with persuasion and with a strong campaign
From the parties, the idea continues to be to overcome the difficulties with persuasion and with a strong campaign, although the electoral managers of the Popular Party and the PSOE are aware of the scenario in which they are managing: “Our mayors are involved, a vote has been taken by mail and we are looking for the mobilization”, affirms Jesús María Prada, of the PP, who a few days after the electoral call already alluded to the need to involve the local militancy to avoid the punishment of a runaway abstention.
The popular representative understands the difficulties of the towns where there are no tables and regrets the feelings of those who have detachment, but trusts in the mobilization capacity of his own. The Secretary of Organization of the PSOE also appeals to this, Inaki Gomez, which stresses the insistence on promoting voting by mail as an antidote against “the date, the cold and the uncertainty” of the elections.
Gómez assumes, in any case, that “it is difficult to mobilize the electorate of the districts& rdquor ;, despite the fact that the provincial deputies of each area and the grassroots militants of the regions are making an effort to call for a vote. That happens in the PSOE and the PP, but the rest of the formations, with a much lower implantation and capacity to reach all corners of the province, must trust their luck to the self-convincing of their supporters.
Participation in the last autonomic elections exceeded 72%
In Zamora, participation in the latest autonomic elections exceeded 72%; in the general November 2019, without the municipal boost, that percentage dropped twelve points. It remains to be seen what happens now and whether the acts, the messages, the publicity and the debates fulfill their function among the electorate.
in tudera, isaac brook he remains, minutes later, in the seat located at the foot of his door. From there, the sayagués observes the romps of a dog next to the premises that, this time, will not serve as a voting center in the regional ones. The man talks about what the fairs were in the area and puts politics aside. Here there is nothing more to say.