“The vote is free”, unsentenced prisoners vote for president for the first time

“They keep what they promise us, right?” a young man asked the candidates this Monday after voting for the first time to elect president in a prison in Mexico. The young man is one of the more than 30,000 unsentenced prisoners who, for the first time, can vote in the country.

The process among those who are serving preventive detention, which began this Monday and will close on May 20, marks a milestone in this already historic campaign, since the polls indicate that for the first time a woman will win the presidential election, which will be They celebrate June 2.

The inmate, 24 years old and whose identity cannot be revealed due to his legal status, not only voted for president. He also ran for mayor of Mexico City, federal and local deputies, and even for mayor of the district where the prison is located.

“They brought us the talks, we watched the debates and with that we were able to support ourselves to be able to vote,” the inmate told the press, whose main demand for presidential candidates is “a little more consideration” for those deprived of liberty.

In the North Men’s Prison, where he is detained, 354 of the 1,862 inmates are called to the polls after the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation determined in February 2019 that prisoners without a sentence have the right to vote.

“They are people who are in preventive detention, that is, they do not have a sentence and, therefore, they have current political-electoral rights.””, María Luisa Flores, president of the Local Council of the National Electoral Institute (INE) of Mexico City, explained to journalists.

“It is a historic morning, really (…) for the entire country”added the official about the voting days, scheduled in 282 prisons in Mexico.

Enthusiasm

Of a population of 232,684 inmates, 31,121 -the 13.3%– met the requirements established by the INE to participate in the vote, according to the government. In the North Prison, voting started at nine in the morning in an atmosphere of enthusiasm.

The prison auditorium, whose ceiling was adorned with a huge, multicolored tissue paper rosette, received the first 171 voters who entered and sat down orderly to wait their turn.

On stage, a dozen electoral officials installed seven voting booths placed symmetrically and at a safe distance so that no one could snoop and violate the secrecy of the vote.

“We are recognizing the right that you have to be able to choose,” Flores said, words responded to by the inmates with applause.

Mass release?

The first seven voters took the stage and occupied the booths that read: “The vote is free and secret.” About five minutes passed before the first person finished voting and came down from the stage to the space provided to deposit their ballot in the amphora and receive the indelible ink mark on their finger, which certifies their participation. Then, voting became more agile.

The inmates’ votes will remain closed until the end of voting on June 2, when they will be added to the rest of the ballots to carry out the general count, Flores reported.

The prisoners’ vote comes after last April the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador warned that the Supreme Court intends to eliminate the figure of informal preventive detention.

This measure, the government warns, would free some 68,000 alleged criminals accused of crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, rape and drug trafficking.

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