translated from Spanish: Electoral expert Axel Callís and the low percentage of agreements in the parties to go to primaries: “In the end, what there is is a democratic setback in involving citizens in decision-making”

What is the expectation of participation in this legal primary day?
In general, the primaries have always called no less than 5 percent of where they are held, so we would be talking about 5% when the former Concertación or part of the Opposition and Chile Vamos participates. And since they are held throughout Chile, where there are seven primaryes from Chile Vamos and 4 from the Broad Front, the expectation today is that around 700,000 people will vote throughout Chile. With Pandemic, 600 grand, that would be a reasonable number.
What would be your interpretation of the facts in case fewer people arrive than 5 percent
That the parties did not even mobilize their direct adherents, i.e. militants and adherents. This is the minute where the parties mobilize their militants and adherents, and in this primary, in general, between mayors and governors, 15 parties participate, that is, almost all opposition parties and Chile Vamos. So if you count the number of militants from those parties, if you make a rule of three, scratch, those parties, in proportional, should put a base of 400 thousand votes. Talking from a since 600 grand, it’s not crazy.
Primaries were initially presented as the way politics had understood the message, and that the candidate decision had to be opened, but the percentage of agreement for citizenship to influence is lower, what fails there?
It is as contradictory, because for two or three years a negotiation was made, especially after 2011, in 2012, the nascent New Majority, organized 142 primaries nationally, conventionally, because there was no law, and then when the law is made in 2016, and legal primary debuts, the New Majority, with more parties, goes from 142 to 50. And Chile Vamos, which had also announced primaries throughout Chile, finally arrives with 42 primaries.  In the end, what there is is a democratic setback in involving citizens in decision-making in the primaries.
Parties are involutioning in terms of sharing decisions with citizens. In the end the internal calculator, and the encapsulation of the parties has become more sharpened with the instance and they no longer even use the legal instances to share with the citizenry,
Instead of going out above the crisis, the crisis of the gap between citizens and parties is exacerbated.
How is the primary mechanism perfected, or does that ground already depend only on the will of the parties’
This is absolutely the will of the parties, because the mechanism is quite reasonable, that is, in few countries there are primary mayors,
What is, it is due, according to our surveys, is that 80 percent of people do not know or understand what is a position of Regional Governor. Information was lacking from parties, the state and Servel regarding this new position.
On the other hand, in the regions, where the mayors are more important, there was also no discussion about the powers of the Regional Governor, so there has been a long way to go, and that is why people have not mobilized en masse, because they do not quite understand that this is going.

Original source in Spanish