July 10 (UPI) -- A far greater percentage of voters over 60 have turned out to vote than younger voters, often by margins of 10 to 25 percentage points, in recent elections across Latin America, including Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Brazil, an analysis shows.
This persistent gap is a clear sign of a crisis of representation that especially affects younger generations and fuels abstention as a form of political disengagement across the region.
Voter abstention has been a growing trend since 2010 in national and regional elections. The reasons behind this disengagement vary, but a crisis of representation and rising distrust in political elites -- especially among young people -- stand out.
"The representative system is in crisis. Society is increasingly distrustful of elites, especially politics as a profession," Argentine political scientist Adrián Rocha said. He warned that voters between the ages of 18 and 30 are showing growing indifference toward traditional democratic values.
Even in countries where voting is mandatory -- such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay -- low turnout remains common in regional and internal party elections.
