Local Elections...

October 26th is the day for local elections and I cannot wait until they are over. Right now, the streets are lined with huge billboards of all the candidates. When I say lined...I mean lined. It was almost dangerous for me to cross the street the other day because I had to step out into the street to see if anything was coming because all the signs pretty much made a wall.

Every day, you see car and trucks with big flags showing the name of their candidate. There are people going house to house. Candidates are handing out flour, sugar, cilantro, etc to win votes. They have rallies with reggeton music playing until 10:00-10:30 at night.

Long lines of cars for one candidate drive along the main streets in trains...at least 30 cars long...and not just cars....trucks, semi tractors, buses, dump trucks....all flying the flag of their candidate and honking their horns. It is rather interesting.

Election day is on a Sunday because people work every other day of the week. A person needs to be registered to vote to vote. If they are registered to vote and don´t vote...they are fined. I haven´t had a solid answer on how much the fine is...but it sounds like it is around 25,000 pesos (which is about $50). It doesn´t cost anything to be registered.

I have 10 more days until election...we will see how it comes along...