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voting rights of residents?
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| voting rights of residents?I was reading that Uruguay rank very high on the list of most democratic countries. One of the reasons was that Uruguay is apparently one of the very few countries that offer simple residents (as opposed to citizens) some rights to vote.Can anyone offer any specifics on the right of residents to vote in Uruguay? |
| Te be able to vote as a resident without getting citizenship, you have to prove 15 years of residency to the Corte Electoral and make a reauest for the voting ID. for this you will also have to provide some other documents: Birth Certificate issued by Uruguayan Birth Registry and may be some others, but all local documents. Regards, Peter Stross |
| Strangely odd.. you can become a full fledged citizen after 3 or 5 years of residency or you could wait 15 years for just the right to vote. |
| Hi Martin, if you are not interested in getting the citizenship, then why are you so in a hurry to vote? Remember that once you got the electoral ID, voting in Uruguay is mandatory. Regards, Peter Stross |
| Interesting exchange of ideas in here. Taking fifteen years to get citizenship is not a good story at all. Is there any difference in having citizenship as a condition for voting? I think it is pointless to have that as a pre-requisite. Staying in a new country for a few years will make you understand the basics of the political scene. From there, making a simple decision such as who to vote for should not really be hard, would it? |
Comment #508/16/09 18:08Rural east Colonia departmento |  You can usually acquire citizenship after 5 years. Once you have acquired it, you apply to the electoral court for the vote. Once granted you must attend the appropriate voting station on election day though you are not compelled to vote once you are there.The court will also grant the vote to resident foreign citizens after 15 years as described above. |
| There's some good information at this link about how to gain residency, then citizenship and a Uruguayan passport if anyone is interested in that. |
| Living in Uruguay with no citizenship must be easier than knowing that you would have to vote, once you have been issued with the electronic ID. That is some serious business. A person should be able to say, no! I am not voting. This is one's own human right, as a individual with no master. |
Comment #811/13/09 17:04Rural east Colonia departmento | "Voting"
As a citizen and registered voter you are entitled not to vote but you must go to the appropriate place, sign on and vote blank or else face a fine. I view it as the responsibility of each citizen to take part in elections in any state which calls itself democratic as the voters bear the final responsibility for the actions of its democratic government. On the other hand I'd agree that there are elections where none of the candidates seem worthy of support and the ROU covers this by allowing the citizen to make a blank vote. Mr Brown, the leader of the British labour party has just announced a "resounding victory" in a bye election where less than one third of the voters bothered to visit the polling stations... which in my view is as resounding as a sponge gong. There again, the Brits just pretend to embrace democracy while the Uruguayos do it for real :-) |
| I truly understand what is being said, but I also remember that in many a country, though not sure if this is the case with Uruguay, so long as a person votes in a blank section, then they are really, in a way, not voting at all, but in actuality they are only just revoting the government that was initially in power, right back into power. I could be wrong though, however. |
Comment #1011/17/09 21:14Rural east Colonia departmento | "Blank votes"
There are valid political reasons for voting blank. Anarchists and Anarchosyndicalists who oppose the very concept of government might feel it their duty to vote blank and an ordinary citizen might feel that there are no candidates on offer worthy of receiving his/her vote. Others might feel that voting just encourages politicians :-)As far as I recall about 2% of Uruguayos voted blank this time. In the UK it is usual for between 35% and 70% not to bother to vote so I can't see that Uruguayan blank voters make a huge difference to the outcome compared to states where voluntary voter turnout is low. |
| "Blank Votes and Spoiled Ballots"
What's interesting is that voters can choose to vote blank OR to "spoil their ballot", by inserting something into the envelope other than the official ballot leaflets. (Some people get quite creative in their selection of a foreign object to put in the envelope, depending on what kind of statement they want to make.) In either case the vote simply doesn't count, but the two categories are reported separately, and the Uruguayans I talked to are careful to distinguish between the two. Voting blank (voto en blanco) means "None of the above" -- "I can't support any of these candidates." Spoiling the ballot (voto anulado) means "The whole system stinks and I am not participating in it." (People can also spoil their ballot accidentally, by inadvertently inserting the wrong piece of paper into the envelope, or by not understanding the voting regulations.) In the last election, 1.6% voted en blanco, and 1.2% spoiled their ballot. More details (in Spanish) here: |
Comment #1211/22/09 17:50Rural east Colonia departmento | "Thanks Shirley"
Thanks for that. I hadn't picked up on the subtle differences |
| "no obligation to vote"
Hi, In France you don't have to vote and you don't even have to go to the vote station. In Belgium even old and sick ppl are carried around by taxi or ambulance to do their duty/obligation. |
| "Voting Rights"
There are extremes to every approach. I'm not sure about forcing the infirm and very ill into a polling station, but there are so many "democratic" countries around the world where the people simply don't turn out to vote and take their freedom for granted. Then again forcing people to vote doesn't necessarily force them to take interest and have a reason to vote either way.For example in the recent Lisbon Treaty in Ireland...we were one of the few European countries given a say, but the people were so disinterested! In the first round people didn't bother to educate themselves, and in the second round most voted out of fear (they wanted benefits of the EU but didn't realise the costs). |
| In some places, I guess they treat the system more like we are still in slavery days, than in other places in the world. This is not surprising by the way. |
Comment #1612/09/09 06:32Rural east Colonia departmento | "Slavery"
I view the system as a cunning form of neo-slavery. By using credit to transform citizens into compliant consumers, our robber barons have achieved the dream of producing a self-sustaining slave who also acts as a consumer while eliminating the heavy costs involved in capture, transportation and maintenance.I don't approve but can't help feeling a certain degree of admiration for the clever folks who thought it up :-) |
| Some admiration must exist, for they are not alone. Basically trying to play God are they, and who would not like the idea of being able to, not temporarily, but more so very much shamefully try to do so? Filling the shoes of the creator, in an attempt, so to speak. |
Comment #1812/18/09 12:10Rural east Colonia departmento | "Robber barons"
You're right Eve. I've built myself a little castle to keep them out :-) |
| Why do these people even exist? Do we need politicians? Aren't they just the middle man of the organization anyway? |
| "Slavery"
I do totally agree with you Patrick, with a little side note: if being a slave is the inability to take decisions on your own live, aren't we all somehow slaves? Oops, sorry, this was for the philosophy forum! Feliz año nuevo / Happy new year / Feliz natal! / Frohes neues Jahr! |
| I do not know much about the politics in Uruguay, can anyone elaborate more on this matter? I was supposed to be moving in that country, but due to some circumstances, I stayed where I am currently working and lost the job that I supposed to have in the said country. But when the time comes when I can be able to go back there, I would want to learn more about its politics and more. |
| "politics in Uruguay"
"I do not know much about the politics in Uruguay, can anyone elaborate more on this matter?"What is it that you would like to know? Where are you from yourself? Because I think the type of politics that you are used to seeing may affect the way you view politics here...for example I get the feeling sometimes that many Americans feel most if not all of Uruguay's problems can be blamed on the fact that they have a leftist government, I would argue differently however. Its all about perception |
Comment #2301/20/10 11:10Rural east Colonia departmento | "Politics"
I'd agree. Compared with most northern politics, the ROU is well to the left in a clunky bureaucratic welfare-statist sort of way. Free market capitalism doesn't seem to be a popular concept, entrepreneurs and industrialists are generally viewed as wicked exploiters of the workers etc etc. The mechanics of democracy are impressive in my view. I don't have the vote yet but having visited the polling stations on election days and watched the process I was very impressed by the organisation, care and extreme secrecy exhibited. In my view, the weirdest aspect of Uruguayan politics is how they manage to combine welfare-statism with such a high degree of personal liberty... a very unusual combination in my experience. Long may it last. |
| ""Politics""
I agree with Patrick. What's "impressive" to me is how a paternalistic, overbearing, welfare state, manages to split "the pie" so democratically. |
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