By Axel Hufford
A banner with the image of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner being displayed at the Congress in Buenos Aires on Oct. 31, 2012 (Getty)
On October 31st, Argentina’s National Congress overwhelmingly approved a bill to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 years old in presidential and legislative elections. Backed by President Cristina Fernández, the bill became law before Argentina’s midterm elections in 2013 (Popper, 2012).
Though the president’s supporters claim that the electoral change will strengthen democracy and give young people a political voice, the reality is less utopian. Fernández needs her party to win two-thirds of the seats in both houses for her to have the chance at a third term in office. Since the youth vote is projected to help her party during the election, the law is a thinly-veiled attempt at altering the constitution and overstaying her welcome as president—a phenomenon known as continuismo. To protect the legitimacy of Argentina’s already fragile democracy, the Supreme Court must overturn the law or face the possibility of future indefinite reelections and an illiberal government.
In Argentina’s 2011 general election, Fernández secured a second four-year term in office with 54% of the popular vote. With a landslide victory, having received 37% more votes than her closest opponent, she became the first woman ever to be reelected as president in Latin America (Warren, 2011). Just a year later, with a slowing economy, protesters clanging pots in the streets, and legislative elections looming, the fate of Fernández’s Peronist party has become unclear (Economist, Sept. 2012).
One thing is certain: Fernández cannot constitutionally run for a third term, but both houses of Congress could allow her to do so with a two-thirds majority vote. As of 2011, the Peronist party is in control of both houses but neither has a supermajority. Though the president remains silent on whether she wishes to run for another term, the new law looks suspiciously like an attempt to increase Peronist votes under the fallacious guise of improving democracy. Fernández, the same ambitious woman who climbed from the usually apolitical role of First Lady to Argentina’s president, quite possibly wants another term in office and is using misguided legislation to get it.
The law will improve Fernández’s chances at reelection because many young Argentinian voters are likely to vote for the Peronist party; in fact, a recent poll suggests that the younger a voter is, the more likely he or she will support the president (Economist, Oct. 2012). According to critics of the president, younger voters are more easily manipulated by government advertisements and political propaganda, and thus Peronists could obtain well over 50% of the new votes (Llana, 2012). Since the law adds 2.1 million potential voters, increasing the electorate by 5%, the president’s party may garner enough support to reach a supermajority in Congress. Fernández could then effectively amend the constitution at her party’s will and, in the right circumstances, be reelected to a third term.
Fortunately, if the President wants to continue her presidency after 2015, she has a few obstacles working against her. First, much like in the United States, young voters in Argentina are significantly less likely to vote than their older counterparts (Economist, Oct. 2012). It would take a massive turnout for the Peronist party to get a supermajority. Even if they did, however, the party itself would have to vote near-unanimously to amend the constitution, something that may be unlikely since Argentinians have seen the negative effects of loosening restrictions on the presidency in other Latin American countries like Peru and Venezuela.
Despite the relatively low odds Fernández has of actually getting a third term, it is in the Supreme Court’s best interest to overturn this law. Not only would lowering the voting age from 18 go against international precedent (only four countries allow 16-year-olds to vote), but also the potential benefits of the law would be far outweighed by the possibility of yet another Latin American country being set down the path of continuismo. By this logic, the law could be considered unconstitutional.
While President Fernández has done an admirable job leading Argentina through difficult economic times, that does not justify moving away from the limits placed on presidential terms. Historically, Latin American presidents increasing their own power through force, coercion or constitutional changes have set their regimes on a path from liberal democracy to illiberal authoritarianism. Even though increasing the number of terms available to a president seems relatively minor, the change undermines the very set of laws that were created to prevent executive abuse. Argentina, generally considered a liberal country, must actively prevent itself from walking down this path in order to protect its future democracy.
Sources
Llana, Sara. “Pimples at the Polls: Argentina Tries to Lower Voting Age to 16.” Yahoo News. N.p., 21 Oct. 2012. Web.
Popper, Helen. “Argentina’s Senate Passes Bill to Lower Voting Age.”
Chicago Tribune. 17 Oct. 2012. Web.”The President and the Potbangers.”
The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 29 Sept. 2012. Web.
Warren, Michael. “Argentine President Wins Landslide Re-election.” Msnbc.com. 23 Oct. 2011. Web.
”Young Guns.” The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 19 Oct. 2012. Web.