Protest of the lack of ballots in special voting stations

Milenio: American Programs Original Translation

See Spanish Original.
Citizens of Oaxaca, Durango, and Coahuila gathered in the entrance of the electoral governing body headquarters, facing heavy security federal police forces.

Mexico City - Dozens of people protested outside the headquarters of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) to demand for their right to vote after they were unable to vote in the special voting stations due to the lack of electoral ballots available.

Around 3 in the afternoon, citizens from the states of Oaxaca, Durango or Coahuila, positioned themselves in the main entrance of the electoral governing party facilities to demand that they be allowed to vote, on the basis that because of work they were unable to vote in the community where they are registered.

After the arrival of the protestors, the Federal Police responded with heavy security forces that remained guarding the IFE entrances.

In an interview, the electoral director Francisco Guerrero, regretted the lack of sufficient special voting stations, but recalled that this number was chosen with the consent of the political parties and complied with a guarantee for greater security in the election.

“In these last few days we were very clear in the IFE that the number of special voting stations that had been designated were few in relation to the more than 143,000 that were installed and clearly, they were designed for people that were in transit,” he explained.

Guerrero said that in all the federal elections there has been this problem, but the agreement that was made in the IFE Commission, and that was approved by the parties, established that there would be a limited number of special voting stations and since the beginning they knew they could only have 750 ballots. There are good reasons for this, and the first has to do with security,” he said.


Translation by Bonnie Ho