This Sunday, the Frente Amplio mobilized throughout the country for internal elections in which they voted for the national presidency and for the departmental presidency, in elections in which more than 100,000 people participated and that, according to the coordinator and Interim spokesperson for the Frente Amplio, Ricardo Ehrlich, overcame the same event but in 2016.
For Ehrlich, it is the beginning of a new stage because “a very important work has been shared by colleagues who have worked very intensely.” “We have come a long way, which begins on that night of the second round in the 2019 elections but which will be marked by a whole internal process of analysis and discussion, which will take place in between that fantastic popular signal of 800,000. signatures of the referendum (against the 135 articles of the LUC) ”, he added.
He publicly thanked the president of the National Party board, Pablo Iturralde, who called him personally on Saturday to congratulate him on the democratic party that took place this Sunday.
The day was marked by an extension of the closing time of the polls due to the very high participation of militants until 8:00 p.m., in the more than 900 voting tables nationwide, and although the final number was not entirely clear, Ehrlich asserted that 100,000 votes were widely exceeded.
At the press conference were the candidates Gonzalo Civila and Ivonne Passada, but Fernando Pereira connected by videoconference for being isolated after having had contact with a positive for COVID-19.
Now, the scrutiny follows: the first stage consists of validating all the inserted ballots and discarding those that are not correct, or the null or blank.
Pereyra: “we have to think about the collective future”
The candidate Fernando Pereira said that, based on these results, the FA “must move towards a struggling battle to build a new majority that repeals the 135 articles of the LUC once and for all” because they are “very negative” for the citizenship.
“After this stage is over, we will do it with other organizations of society, the union movement, feminism, environmentalism, students, but also with hundreds of organizations that are not so well known but that are joining this campaign ( …) We have to think about the collective future between all and all, think about the generational renewal that should not exclude anyone, “added the former president of the PIT-CNT.
“Having a construction and an alternative to neoliberal power is not only a need for the Uruguayan people, but it is an obligation of the FA,” he specified.
Civila: “This is a strong signal for the FA and for the government”
Gonzalo Civila, another of the candidates, took the floor to thank all the FA militancy that supported this electoral act but that “has been banking, accompanying and activating each neighbor and neighbor to join the FA project.”
“The people of the Frente Amplio gave us a very strong signal, because we come from a very tough 2019 for the FA, and we are living the consequences of the defeat are the policies that are being carried out anti-popular policies that are generating a very harmful effect on the enormous The majority of society, that after that electoral fall, which was significant, today we have more votes than in the 2016 election, it is a very strong signal and it should be so for this government, which should rethink the policy it is carrying out ”, Civila said.
He recalled the various defeats that the government has suffered in elections such as those of the BPS, in the Codicen and in other instances in which the lists supported by the workers and the union movements have emerged triumphant.
Passada: “Joy is returning for this house”
The last to speak was the candidate Ivonne Passada, who said that the political day was “a party” at the more than 900 tables in the country.
“This is just beginning, this is a teamwork that we are going to be doing together. It does not matter where we are, we have to put everything we have learned, everything done and everything unified, “said Passada.
“We made one arrival to each of the places in the interior, Montevideo and nearby capitals, often all three together, but always in unitary terms, but the preparation and effort made by each of the militants in the whole country, with the same gaze and the same participation. And this is why we are convinced that it is a party, “he added.
After making a call to vote for the repeal of the 135 articles of the LUC, he concluded: “All this makes us think that happiness is returning for this house.”
