How much does a vote cost?

This is probably a theoretical question for most people, except maybe for professional campaigners that wonders how much money they can spend on advertising. Votes don't cost anything in a democracy, you can't buy them like you buy milk; people chose whom to vote for and the party or person that can present the best option wins, such is probably our thinking. Such is probably our view of democracy as well. Of course we are aware of that money hugely affects an election, the presidential campaign in the US is one example of that, but the effect is more indirect. How much a vote actually costs, how much you need to pay in cash to a voter to secure their vote, that question we wouldn't even consider, it doesn't really belong in a democracy. We think.

Paraguay is a democracy and the price of a vote is between 100.000-200.000 Guaranies, 25$ or 150 SEKrrr. In cash. This is how it works, at least where we are. Normally your family will be affiliated with a party, in the same it is probably supporting a football team. The party will hire people to walk around the town and visit people, encourage them to put the stickers and banners on their houses and pay them a sum of money. If you're not affiliated then you will get more visits. Then on election day they will pick you up and drive you to the voting station. It seems like the voting is secret anyway, so nobody can actually see what you name you put in, but people assume that you vote for "your" party. Another way to do it is that the rival party pays you and keeps your ID-card, in that way you cant vote at all.

There are of course loads of stories of how people abuse this system. In the preliminaries last year one man apparently gathered the identity cards for his friends and went as their representative to a politician to collect the money. He put the sum in his pocket, went back to his people and said that the politician didn't want them and they had to go somewhere else. 

For a westerner like me that is used to parties competing with issues and what they want to do, the campaign here in Paraguay is a bit confusing, Because issues aren't mentioned at all. So far we have received ONE leaflet that had anything practical to say about what the party wanted to achieve more concretely. Its all about connecting to a party or a movement within a party.

And its about money. Lots of money. The Liberal party is one of the two big competitors, and they just got supported by a 10% party. In return the state bought a big property for millions of dollars at over-prize from the party. A not so subtle pay  for alliance. But since the president is Liberal it can be done.

Where does all this money come from? The state. The people. And forgetting how sad it is to see the principles of democracy be misused, this is even sadder. In the second poorest country in South America, who only spend 8% of its budget on schools and health care, the peoples money are used to buy votes but even more line the pockets of politicians.