Sunday 3 June 2007
Today was city elections here in Buenos Aires! We've had weeks of posters and campaigning and half the newspaper taken up with election news (when describing a candidate, they were always sure to mention which soccer team he supports) and were quite glad to see the day actually arrive. Here are people looking up their voting info at a polling location.
There has also been all kinds of union activity and strikes and trouble in the city because all the workers with grievances (of which there are an awful lot in Buenos Aires) have been trying to get the politicians to use their cause as a campaign tool. And of course, the candidates have been biting, promising to solve all these salary and benefit issues. Hm.
The thing is - the results are coming in now, and it looks like the main guy isn't going to have quite 50%, so we could be in for three more weeks of campaigning before the run-off. Ugh!
An interesting note about election day here - you can't buy any booze. The grocery stores stopping selling it at 8 pm yesterday, had the wine aisles covered with plastic, and no restaurant was serving. Last night the bars closed their doors at midnight. (Strangely, if you were inside by then they would continue to serve you, you just couldn't get in after 12.)
There has also been all kinds of union activity and strikes and trouble in the city because all the workers with grievances (of which there are an awful lot in Buenos Aires) have been trying to get the politicians to use their cause as a campaign tool. And of course, the candidates have been biting, promising to solve all these salary and benefit issues. Hm.
The thing is - the results are coming in now, and it looks like the main guy isn't going to have quite 50%, so we could be in for three more weeks of campaigning before the run-off. Ugh!
An interesting note about election day here - you can't buy any booze. The grocery stores stopping selling it at 8 pm yesterday, had the wine aisles covered with plastic, and no restaurant was serving. Last night the bars closed their doors at midnight. (Strangely, if you were inside by then they would continue to serve you, you just couldn't get in after 12.)
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