Sunday: Presidential Primary Edition

Today was a balmy 62 and sunny - the perfect day for a presidential primary! And not just any primary, the first ever presidential primary!

My host mom took me with her to the polls this afternoon to vote. Polling locations are divided by house and by last name, so different members of the family can vote in different locations (as is the case in my house). Everyone has a specific table within the school they go to where their ID booklet is stamped to make sure they voted (voting is obligatory) and then one at a time they go into a classroom to do their voting. There are pieces of paper, by party, where one side is the presidential candidate and the other is all their nominees for the remaining positions. With your own envelope, you either put in the paper for one party, or you can tear off one half of the paper and combine it with the other half from a different party.

Then we took a walk through the park where she told me a bit more about the election. I always forget how recent much of Argentine history is - for example, my host mom voted for the first time when she was 29, because before that was the military dictatorship and the "Dirty War" (but its never called the "Dirty War" here, but rather state terrorism, which does make more sense). She told me stories about the first election, how people celebrated throughout the streets. Its nice to be in a place where people appreciate democracy and their right to vote.

Tonight was another family dinner, but was special because we were watching the election results. Before dinner each member of the family put down their predictions for vote percentages for the 6 major presidential candidates. Note: Any candidate that doesn't receive 400,000 vote in this round will not participate in the October general election, so its more of a run-off system. Then we watched the results roll in over pastries.

The last I checked Cristina Kirchner (the current president) had 48 percent of the vote, with the next closest having only 13 percent. I'm still trying to figure out why this primary system is beneficial as there are still 6 candidates left for October and Kirchner looks like she has a pretty solid lead...Oh well, we'll see what happens in the next two months.

Tomorrow marks the start of the second week of school. Wish me luck!