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The first participatory budgets of the City of Cartagena have arrived on Wednesday March 8 at the crucial moment of its journey with the opening of ballot boxes that definitively decide which are the projects that have chosen the citizens and citizens of the port city to be destined The municipal economic reserve reserved for this purpose for the 2017 financial year, amounting to 1,569,387 euros.

The total votes that Cartagena citizens over 16 years of age have issued in order to have a voice and a direct decision on the improvements they want to make in their respective neighborhoods, districts and councils have been 4,336 votes.

The number of people who have exercised their right to vote has reached 2.47% of the census for this initiative, a percentage that, despite what may seem, far exceeds the participation of other cities that have implemented similar programs, some Even larger than the municipality of Cartagena.

LEARN FROM THE EXPERIENCE

The mayor of Cartagena, José López, stated after this opening act that these first participatory budgets that the city of the port city has launched "as a pilot experience is well" and has been willing to fulfill its duty to " Attend "to the demand that the citizens of Cartagena have manifested with their ballot papers.

With this, the mayor has indicated that now it is appropriate to "spend that million and a half euros in the eight, nine or ten most voted projects".

Regarding this initiative, which is implemented for the first time in the municipality, López has commented that "it will have to be debugged and made even more real and more participatory".

That is why it is proposed to look at the example of other municipalities that already have more experience or a longer trajectory in this matter.

"We will have to look at other cities that are doing it and get the best of each one and despise the worst that worked," he said.

"This government is willing to learn from the mistakes that we can make and from the successes achieved by other municipalities and we will apply them," added the first mayor on the same line.

"We are learning to be a democracy that is much more participatory, and that is the way we have to walk," said the mayor.

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Likewise, Lopez has requested the help of the media in future editions to publicize this initiative in order to increase the participation.

As explained in this regard, given that it is a system based on 'one person, one vote', it is rewarded the groups that are most mobilized, so it has reminded the citizenry to be involved.

PUBLIC COUNTS

The act of opening ballot boxes and the subsequent recount of the votes deposited by the citizens have been public and, as it could not be otherwise, the attendance to the act has been free, so any neighbor or neighbor who has Considered was able to attend to witness the scrutiny.

A wide representation of the municipal government that has promoted this project, headed by the mayor, José López, has come to the same one.

Also present were the Councilor for Quality of Life, Francisco Calderón;

The Councilor for Transparency and Good Governance, Juan Pedro Torralba;

The councilman of the area of ​​Property and Interior, Francisco Aznar;

The councilor delegate of Hacienda, Isabel García;

And the delegated councilor of Portal and Office of Transparency, María José Soler as well as other members of the Corporation as Manuel Padín.

Likewise, the members of the Citizen Participation Commission have been invited.

The technicians appointed to carry out the vote counting work have been distributed in three teams that have opened the ballot boxes three in three and have started thus with the counting of each one of them.

The data that have been collected have been inserted in a program created specifically by the municipal computer technicians for this initiative and that allowed the results to be updated instantly.

A PARTICIPATORY PROCESS FROM ITS FIRST STEPS

This is the last step of participatory budgets, prior to the execution of the most voted actions.

The process began with the reception of proposals submitted freely by the citizens and the subsequent study by the technicians of the City Council, who determined its feasibility and if they fit the bases of the call.

After this, the voting period was opened, with a total of 4,336 people being elected until Sunday, March 5, when the voting period was closed, of which 3,759 have cast their vote in person and 576 They have done it online through the platform enabled to enable telematic voting online.

Source: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena