divine message
06.07.06. the past few days have been of great tension. last sunday, 2 july, mexico celebrated its presidential elections. i went to bed in vienna even before the casillas in mexico closed. it was natural that i woke up the next day very nervous and anxious to learn about the results. i had breakfast at my hostel and looked for mexicans in the dining room--when traveling in europe, there's always mexicans around you when you need them, and when you don't--surely they would know something. i spotted a group from monterrey but they were gone before i realized it. i could not check my e-mail at the hostel because i had no change, and decided to stop by an internet café on my way to schoenbrunn, the castle that was used as summer residence of the habsburgs until the late 19th century. once in the bus, i thought it would be better to wait. why the rush? the results are only preliminary and, plus, it makes no difference if i know the results now or later. yeah, right.
being so curious and intellectually restless (right, chapo?), i needed to know right away. i hestiated once again. i had to make a quick decision: make a detour of four blocks once i got off the bus to go to the internet place i knew or get in the subway and wait until i came back from the castle? i must be strong, i thought, and waited.
still, in my mind the question remained, who won? who won? i asked imploringly, as if someone would turn to me and give me an answer. i got off the bus and kept walking towards the subway station, still thinking of making the detour that would satisfy my curiosity. please, God, let felipe win! let felipe win! i prayed. once again, i had to persuade myself that it was harmless to wait and that i should take advantage of my time in vienna to get to know the city. unconvinced, i kept walking towards the metro.
who won? who won? i kept asking.
and then i read the answer.
on a wooden post, i saw one of these signs, very popular in europe, advertising events like concerts, musical festivals, and the like. the poster was stuck to the cylindrical post and all i could read were the following words:
felipe the advent
my heart stopped. i could not believe what i was reading. i slowed my pace but kept walking. after i realized what i had just read, i walked back and read again.
felipe the advent
i looked up and started laughing frantically. whoever saw me must have thought i was crazy. smiling and reassured, i decided to check the news on the internet later and walked decisively to the metro.
a few hours later i found out that the electoral institute, ife, had concluded that the result was too close to call a winner and that they could not make a conclusive statement based on the quick and preliminary counting of the votes. good call. felipe was up by a mere 1.5% and the result could change after they finished counting the rest of the ballots of accounted for the "anomalous" votes--whatever this meant. i left for bratislava on the 4th, didn't check the news again that day, and on the 5th around 11am (4am in mexico), i read that felipe was still above amlo by about 1%. with 98% of the ballots counted, it was mathematically impossible that the result would change.
so it was a huge surprise when i saw later that amlo was winning! i did my thing in bratislava, went to two castles, went shopping, had dinner, saw the france-portugal semifinal match, and then checked my e-mail. it was 11pm (4pm in mexico) and the newspaper said amlo was up by 2.5% after 60% of the ballots were counted! i didn't get it... hadn't they counted 98% already last time i read the news?
it's hard to follow all the news being abroad and traveling with limited access to internet or tv. i hadn't read that on wednesday they would start the recount of the votes as written in each of the acts by district. apparently some prd (amlo's party) people had delayed the counting in those casillas won by felipe... my guess is that they wanted the people to see that amlo was ahead early in the counting to make a case for fraud in case he lost once they had finished. 8 of the 10 districts with delays were pan (felipe's) districts. and so far they had found no discrepancies with what the quick counting made by the prep had found.
i went to bed, this time more calm. something told me things were alright. don't worry, felipe will win, i told myself. it's almost 1pm in bratislava, 5am in mexico, and the poor ife people are still counting votes. except that everything after the first 60% of the votes were recounted has consistently narrowed amlo's lead. with only 1.4% of the votes to count, felipe is up by 0.22%. good for him.
i can stop checking now. i trust ife. i trust that divine message conveyed by a sign on a wooden post.
being so curious and intellectually restless (right, chapo?), i needed to know right away. i hestiated once again. i had to make a quick decision: make a detour of four blocks once i got off the bus to go to the internet place i knew or get in the subway and wait until i came back from the castle? i must be strong, i thought, and waited.
still, in my mind the question remained, who won? who won? i asked imploringly, as if someone would turn to me and give me an answer. i got off the bus and kept walking towards the subway station, still thinking of making the detour that would satisfy my curiosity. please, God, let felipe win! let felipe win! i prayed. once again, i had to persuade myself that it was harmless to wait and that i should take advantage of my time in vienna to get to know the city. unconvinced, i kept walking towards the metro.
who won? who won? i kept asking.
and then i read the answer.
on a wooden post, i saw one of these signs, very popular in europe, advertising events like concerts, musical festivals, and the like. the poster was stuck to the cylindrical post and all i could read were the following words:
felipe the advent
my heart stopped. i could not believe what i was reading. i slowed my pace but kept walking. after i realized what i had just read, i walked back and read again.
felipe the advent
i looked up and started laughing frantically. whoever saw me must have thought i was crazy. smiling and reassured, i decided to check the news on the internet later and walked decisively to the metro.
a few hours later i found out that the electoral institute, ife, had concluded that the result was too close to call a winner and that they could not make a conclusive statement based on the quick and preliminary counting of the votes. good call. felipe was up by a mere 1.5% and the result could change after they finished counting the rest of the ballots of accounted for the "anomalous" votes--whatever this meant. i left for bratislava on the 4th, didn't check the news again that day, and on the 5th around 11am (4am in mexico), i read that felipe was still above amlo by about 1%. with 98% of the ballots counted, it was mathematically impossible that the result would change.
so it was a huge surprise when i saw later that amlo was winning! i did my thing in bratislava, went to two castles, went shopping, had dinner, saw the france-portugal semifinal match, and then checked my e-mail. it was 11pm (4pm in mexico) and the newspaper said amlo was up by 2.5% after 60% of the ballots were counted! i didn't get it... hadn't they counted 98% already last time i read the news?
it's hard to follow all the news being abroad and traveling with limited access to internet or tv. i hadn't read that on wednesday they would start the recount of the votes as written in each of the acts by district. apparently some prd (amlo's party) people had delayed the counting in those casillas won by felipe... my guess is that they wanted the people to see that amlo was ahead early in the counting to make a case for fraud in case he lost once they had finished. 8 of the 10 districts with delays were pan (felipe's) districts. and so far they had found no discrepancies with what the quick counting made by the prep had found.
i went to bed, this time more calm. something told me things were alright. don't worry, felipe will win, i told myself. it's almost 1pm in bratislava, 5am in mexico, and the poor ife people are still counting votes. except that everything after the first 60% of the votes were recounted has consistently narrowed amlo's lead. with only 1.4% of the votes to count, felipe is up by 0.22%. good for him.
i can stop checking now. i trust ife. i trust that divine message conveyed by a sign on a wooden post.
posted by adrián at 06:07
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