Battle against low participation
The IECM counselor Ernesto Ramos explained in an interview that, on average, 5% of the electoral roll participates annually, that is, just over 450,000 people, taking into account the 7.7 million registered inhabitants with domicile in the city.
He said that the IECM seeks to expand that percentage of participation, through campaigns on social networks and resources within its reach, without having to incur additional expenses.
In 2022, the challenge is even greater, since the local Congress did not approve the amount requested for its operation.
“We had planned a general budget, for the year, of 1,955 million, for different tools, and what they approved for us was 1,200, that is, a reduction of 700 million. Any additional money that the institution can count on goes to invest so that citizens can better use their rights, to enhance their rights,” he said.
The great battle is to generate a greater civic culture and that more and more neighbors are interested in spending a resource that is destined to improve their environment.
Ramos pointed out that for this purpose they also seek to involve the capital authorities themselves “also investing resources, time, personnel, to promote the Participatory Budget exercise, to, for example, show off the results, that is, ‘in such a mayor’s office with the Budget Participatory we made these projects and here are the citizens who give an account of it, who followed up on it, who invested part of their time to make this successful'”.
