Sunday, Feb. 04, 2024 - 4:13 pm.
I’m writing this from the capital’s airport as I wait for my flight home. It’s election day in my home country, for president and congress, and for the first time the people living abroad can vote.
I wasn’t going to do it. I wasn’t paying much attention to the whole process, really, just resigned to that place being hell and me living with survivor’s guilt. But there’s one congresswoman that rocks and she encouraged citizens abroad to go vote. And I said, “she’s so decent, I wish she kept her seat; and you know, this presidential election is rigged, it’s unconstitutional and it will only cement the dictatorship. Let’s do it!”
Voting entailed that I took a 800 km trip, with its consequent expenses. But as the days went by after I booked my flight (same-day round-trip), I was more and more glad I decided to go. All parties but one in this election are right-wing, and we know the unconstitutional president will remain in his seat. Reelection is unconstitutional but what the hell, eh? His propaganda machine, his power-hungry minions and all the dumb people who support them will make sure he wins. In fact, citizens abroad were only considered to vote in this election because those are the ones who support him the most: the ones who do not live there.
The campaign had been full of lies, harassment, and dull at best. Until yesterday.
Suddenly memes started popping up, a shitposting storm all over Twitter that had everyone in stitches and ultimately supporting the left-wing party. Not arguments, not evidence, not government plan… just laughs, jokes, photoshopped images. People changed the left-wing candidate’s name, he went along with it, and people said “yoooo, he listened to us!”
I was gonna vote null in the presidential ballot (my full vote for congress went to the left-wing congresswoman mentioned above). The left-wing candidate is nevertheless incompetent and misogynistic, but if you’re drowning, you latch onto the first scraps that float your way. This is what started to go down. 24 hours before the elections, there rose a spontaneous viral campaign calling to vote for the left-wing candidate just to spite the president/presidential candidate/dictator.
And what am I if not petty? I was already travelling 800 km out of spite, just to send a message with my vote that not everyone supports the dictator.
So I left home this morning at 7 am. Took a transfer, a plane, another transfer and I made it to my home country’s embassy at 1 pm. When I got to the embassy, I could almost smell the minions of the official party. Just yesterday some leaks showed that there were people from that party in my embassy (and many others) directing people’s vote. Thankfully I didn’t get any of that shit, but there’s a high possibility (if not a given) that they’ll tamper with my vote, the electronic vote, which is the one for people abroad.
I did not expect to find so many people in the embassy waiting to vote either. It always amazes me that other people from my country live here, even though it’s not that weird. I know of two classmates, one guy I met on Twitter (actually the one person who showed me the capital when I first arrived), and two students for whom I was an instructor when I was an undergrad.
Make it three students. I was about to enter the booth to vote and one of the people coming out walked by and said hi. She always struck me as queer. She hasn’t changed much.
Also to my surprise, after voting I got a ticket to exchange it for the food of my people -a tamal and a chocolate-covered banana- and a flag of my country. I shared the meal in the backyard with two other compatriots making small talk. Then I split.
The blessings did not stop there. I called an Uber for the airport and I got a female driver. Now I’m here with a cold vanilla latte, having found the best spot in this Starbucks (I’d been doing great keeping my distance given their support for Zionism but this is what I had at hand): a table on the corner with cushy seats.
Quick updates on everything else: we’ve had a nice first week of vacation with Andrew. My mom’s been sick but it comes and goes and they’re running tests. I’ve met with friends. I attended an online book club as one of the authors of the anthology published by the big publisher. I’ve worked a bit on uni stuff, I haven’t made as much progress as I’d hoped but I give myself a break, I’m on vacation.
Gotta wrap this up and go find my gate. I’ll get home just in time to check the results of the election. The opposition won’t be much, but it’ll be honest work.
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