RNW launches Mexican vote compass

RNW, 29 May 2012

Working in conjunction with Amsterdam’s VU University and a number of Mexican media partners, Radio Netherlands Worldwide launched the Mexican vote compass on Monday in Mexico City.

Photo:josueosuna

The Vote Compass gives Mexican voters an online tool for determining their political preferences for the presidential election on 1 July.

The Mexican variant of the Vote Compass is called La Brújula Presidencial, and will give the nearly 80 million eligible voters the chance to discover which of the four presidential candidates’ policy positions are closest to their own. On 1 July, Mexico will not only elect a new president but also 128 senators and 500 members of the lower house of congress.

On the vote compass website, voters are presented with 30 statements about various political, social and economic topics. Some of the statements are left or right-leaning, while others are liberal or conservative. After filling in the responses, the voter receives an indication of how the party platforms of the four presidential candidates match their own preferences.

La Brújula Presidencial was developed by a team of Mexican and Dutch political scientists. The Vote Compass (Kieskompas) was developed by the VU University of Amsterdam and has been adapted to more than 30 countries. Radio Netherlands Worldwide has previously worked with the VU University to develop vote compasses for Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. Mexico is the first Latin American country where the vote compass is being used.