Voting at any price
"Everyone should come to the vote so that we can change things. It is important and a civic obligation to do so." That's what Phil Youderian told the Biel-based photographer Enrique Muñoz García on Sunday, after he fought his way up the stairs on his knees in the voting room at a school in Ancud on the Chilean island of Chiloé.
The American with voting rights in Chile has lived in Ancud for 20 years. Three years ago he was hospitalized because of an infection in his leg, later it had to be amputated. Despite this restriction, it was important for him to enter the voting room on Sunday and use his vote to ensure that the Chilean constitution, which was written in 1980 during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, would finally be changed.
The effort was rewarded: 78.3 percent of Chileans voted for the change. "The day of the vote was a day of peace, respect and joy," writes Muñoz García, who was born and raised in Ancud, to the BT editorial staff about the historic moment. The curfew imposed on Covid-19, which normally begins at 11 pm, has been moved to 1 am. "Peaceful celebrations were held across the country."
Text: Jana Tálos / Bieler Tagblatt
pictures: Enrique Muñoz García