PAN and PRD prepare to take action against the PRI

El Universal: Americas Program Original Translation
See Spanish Original.

The meetings between the national leaders of the PAN, Gustavo Madero, and of the PRD, Jesus Zambrano, intensified as the two parties prepared to formalize a joint action against the PRI.

As El Universal published in its July 2 edition, the two parties jointly designed a plan to oversee 150,000 polls, which allowed them to gather the reports of irregularities.

In a statement, Madero said he had met with Zambrano and that he “is open to dialogue.”

He confirmed that he has proof that on election day there was “a sophisticated vote-buying operation in which PRI governors are implicated, in which they approved the indiscriminate use of public resources to promote candidates.”

He urged all political actors to review electoral legislation carefully in order to put an end to the practices of the past which impede the full legitimization of electoral results.

The panista reminded that several challenges have been presented, including significant examples such as the distribution of Banca Monex cards to PRI operatives, especially to its representatives, both general and at the polls, who were registered with the IFE.

For Madero Muñoz, in the case that the electoral authorities validate Peña Nieto’s win, they would only give legality but not legitimacy to the presidential election, due to the deep issues with the way the PRI obtained thousands of votes.

He indicated that the PAN will maintain its firm position so that everything can be clarified and confirmed, and that in the future the illegal handling of resources and vote buying will not be repeated.

A call to join forces
Senator-elect Javier Corral, in a statement, called on the PAN to join forces with the left to clean up the election: “It is very important to follow up on the complaints presented to authorities regarding the abuses of the governors, the bias and manipulation of the pre-election polls by various media outlets, the outrageous expenditures by Peña Nieto’s campaign, and the buying and coercion of votes.”

Corral Jurado said that the PAN and the PRD should consolidate a common agenda in Congress to tackle the inequity that continues to spread in the electoral process, as well as the creation of a working accountability system for local governments.

Translation by Ryan Gentzler.

Another Rigged Vote? The Big Sham in Mexico

Counter Punch: Paul Imison. Mexico City. Mexico could be forgiven for partying like it’s 2006. Following the election on Sunday, where Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto appeared to win the presidency by a 6.5% margin over leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the result is being hotly contested. Just as in 2006, when he lost by a mere 0.56% to Felipe “drug warrior” Calderon, AMLO demanded a full recount based on evidence of irregularities in no fewer than – wait for it – 113,855 voting booths around the country.

The authority trusted (or not) with clearing up this mess is Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), which on Tuesday granted a partial recount of ballots from 78,000 voting booths, or casillas (54.5% of the total vote). Compare that to the just 3,000 ballots recounted in 2006 when the result was even tighter. The concession was surely an attempt to dampen the mobilization of AMLO’s considerable (and angry) support base that rocked the nation’s streets six years ago – not to mention the rolling thunder of the #YoSoy132 student movement. Read more.

Photos: March against Enrique Pena Nieto and IFE

On Saturday in Mexico City, an estimated number of 50,000 people marched in protest of Enrique Pena Nieto and electoral fraud, often citing the Federal Electoral Institute, IFE. 

Photos taken by anonymous. 

Students march against Mexico's election result

AP: MEXICO CITY – Tens of thousands of protesters marched in Mexico's capital on Saturday to protest Enrique Pena Nieto's apparent win in the country's presidential election, accusing his long ruling party of buying votes.

The protesters were angered by allegations that Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party gave out bags of groceries, pre-paid gift cards and other goods to voters ahead of July 1 national elections.

The students, unionists and leftists in the march carried signs reading, "Pena, how much did it cost to become president?" and "Mexico, you pawned your future for 500 pesos." Mexico City officials put the size of the crowd that reached its central Zocalo plaza at 50,000. Read more.

Final recount: EPN 38.21%, AMLO 31.59%, and JVM 25.41%

The official recall votes are in, with Enrique Pena Nieto winning the most votes. A final report is to be submitted today by IFE, and a total of the votes will be presented to the Council on Sunday. The results are still not definitive and require the Electoral Tribunal of Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) to declare the elections valid and the new president.
El Universal: Americas Program Original Translation Excerpt
See Spanish Original.
The Federal Electoral Institute concluded the voting recount from the elections this past July 1st, and according to the results, the candidate of the PRI-PVEM, Enrique Pena Nieto, led his closest competitor by 6.62%, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

With the count of 100 per cent of the voting booths completed, the candidate of Commitment to Mexico Coalition, Enrique Pena Nieto, has been confirmed for obtaining the greatest number of votes in the election, 19,219,919, that represents 38.21% of the votes issued, a number consistent with the rapid count carried out on election day and with the Preliminary Electoral Results Program (PREP).

Also it maintained the difference, that at the end remained at 6.62% above the closest candidate, the contender of the Progressive Movement Coalition, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who gained 31.59% of votes in the election, or 15,891,107 votes.

In votes, the percentage 6.62% between both candidates represents 3,328,812 votes.

The PAN candidate, Josefina Vazquez Mota remained in third place, with 25.41% of votes and 12.8 points below the winner. The linesman of New Alliance, Gabriel Quadri, earned 2.29% of the votes, in which the party maintained registered as a national party, but was surpassed by the 2.47% of void votes.

Translation Summary by Bonnie Ho, Americas Program 

Mexico: Recounts for more than half the ballot boxes

The Federal Election Institute is conducting the recount of ballots in specific cases, which are detailed below, and the final count should be completed by Sunday. 

CNN: Mexico City -- More than half of the ballot boxes from last weekend's Mexican presidential election -- 54.5% -- will be individually recounted, the executive secretary of Mexico's Federal Election Institute said Wednesday.

That represents 78,012 ballot boxes, Edmundo Jacobo Molina told reporters.

The political parties will supervise, review and watch over the recount, which will be carried out by the election institute, he said.

The announcement came as the official ballot count in Mexico's presidential elections began Wednesday and as the presumptive president-elect sought to consolidate his reported victory even as a challenger refused to concede. Read more.

Mexico's presidential election tainted by claims of vote buying

As the recount is going underway, this article makes the distinction that the frustration with the election results and the call for the recount "has less to do with the overall vote tally than the way the presidency was won."

Washington Post: MEXICO CITY — In their eagerness to assure the world that Sunday’s election was free and fair, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and the country’s top electoral officials seem to have glossed over a few dirty details.

The election, it appears, might not have been so squeaky clean after all.

That is the suspicion emerging here, in the days after preliminary vote tallies by Mexico’s Federal Election Institute (IFE)gave Enrique Peña Nieto a six percentage point win over second-place finisher Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who represents the country’s left.

The initial count shows Peña Nieto’s margin of victory was more than 3 million votes, an advantage that should be wide enough to overcome any legal challenge to his win, including Lopez Obrador’s demand for a full recount of the ballots. Read more.

Election recount begins at more than half of Mexico polls

latimes.com: MEXICO CITY -- Mexico is recounting votes cast at more than half its polling places during Sunday's presidential election, the electoral body said Wednesday, as reports of vote-buying marred the apparent win of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Ballots from more than 54% of polling places will be recounted within 72 hours, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) said. The figure marks a huge increase over the 9% of ballots that were recounted in the long and contentious aftermath of the disputed 2006 election.

The recount began early Wednesday as part of the IFE's normal procedure of validating results gathered from the institute's 300 electoral districts. By law, ballots are recounted when a polling place shows irregularities, such as more votes cast than there are registered voters, a complete sweep by a single candidate or party, or a 1-percentage-point or smaller margin between first and second place.

Separately, the PRI is facing growing accusations that campaigns gave potential voters supermarket debit cards in exchange for their votes, among other allegations. Read more.

Citizen organization denounces voting irregularities and coercion

CNN Mexico: Americas Program Original Translation
See Spanish Original.
28.4% of citizens were exposed to at least one experience of vote-buying, reported Civic Alliance 

The presidential election on July 1st in Mexico “was not a clean or fair one”, concluded the civil organization Civic Alliance after carrying out an observational study of the elections.

Observers detected that 28.4% of citizens were exposed to at least one experience of vote-buying and vote coercion.

After processing 91% of the information collected in 21 federal entities, the organization concluded that 71% of the pressure to vote for a party was in favor of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) coalition and the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM); following with 17% in favor of the National Action Party (PAN), 9% in favor of the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) and 3% for the New Alliance.

“This election is unsatisfactory, when we see these reports that give evidence that there were commissions of crimes, irregular practices, enormous secret spending. The fairness in this election is broken,” said Eduadro Huchim, member of the organization and former electoral councilor of Mexico City.

After taking 3,158 surveys, Civic Alliance announced on Tuesday that in 21% of the voting stations the principal of exercising a free and confidential vote was violated by different causes such as: people observing inside the partitions, that the voters were supposed to show their vote to someone to receive gifts, citizens exercising some type of pressure on the voters and that “it was detected that one or various children accompanied different citizens on different occasions to vote.”

This last practice, that the Civic Alliance named the use of “children as hawks,” was detected in the State of Mexico, Jalisco, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, when under-age minors received pay for accompanying voters on different occasions to vote and leave the voting station; they were informed that this had been seen.

IFE announces 43 recounts in 37 electoral districts

Milenio: Americas Program Original Translation
The director Alfredo Figueroa reported that six packets were robbed on election day, and two voting stations were not installed in Oaxaca.

Mexico City – The electoral director of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), Alfredo Figueroa, announced that they will carry out 43 total recounts – 50,000 voting stations, in the presidential, senate and legislator elections. In a conference, the official explained that during the electoral day six packets were robbed, and two voting stations were not installed in Oaxaca, and for this reason they will review the district counts, a total of 143,114 packets.

Regarding in which voting booths votes will be recounted, he said that there is a possibility of a total recount in 37 districts located in Aguascalientes, Baja California, Hidalgo, State of Mexico, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Michoacán, Sonora, Puebla, Chihuahua, Guanajuato and Mexico City, among other states. He brought forward that the electoral packets are under the IFE's control.

Photos: Marches against electoral fraud and Pena Nieto

The day after the election, and the day after that, the #Iam132 student movement organized peaceful demonstrations in Mexico City protesting electoral fraud and Enrique Pena Nieto.

Photos taken by Rafael Stedile.

Election “full” of irregularities, concludes #YoSoy132

El Proceso: Americas Program Original Translation
See Spanish Original.
Mexico City – Based in an encampment at the Revolution Monument and with a “Peace Room,” or center of operations, in a residence in the south of the city, the members of the movement #Iam132 reported that the electoral day was “full” of irregularities and a "wave of violence."

Calling for 3,000 observers and committees to register witness reports and by means of social networks, the students documented around 500 reports of irregularities, they said through different press releases and a press conference at the Revolution Monument.

“Up until now there are more than 500 reports of irregularities, among them some are serious offenses: it has been registered that police have robbed ballot boxes and that there have been shootings. Also, we received an extreme case in which poll workers were kidnapped. In Pueblo Nuevo, Chiapas, armed groups entered the voting stations and there were two deaths. In San Miguel Totolopan, Guerrero, we found out that they filled ballot boxes. In San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, armed groups with submachine guns fired at voters. In Ensenada, Baja California, a voting employee disappeared with 2500 ballots,” said Sandino Bucio, and announced that all the documentation that was gathered will be given to Fepade [the special federal investigative unit for electoral crime] to make their case.

Of the reports received throughout the country, they said that 46% related to vote buying; 30% voting irregularities; 19% related to propaganda. In spite of the close of the election, these isolated cases can affect many.

The states with the most “controversies,” according to reports, were Mexico State, Veracruz, Tabasco and Chiapas.

Denied the Right to Vote in Mexico’s Presidential Election

My husband and I moved away from our voting district in Mexico State in large part due to increasing violence. In May 2011, I suffered a botched kidnapping attempt in broad daylight. In October 2011, we were enjoying a drink in a quiet, well-lit bar when municipal police allegedly working for the La Familia criminal organization burst in, locked down the bar, and held us all at gunpoint while they pressured the owner to pay his quota to La Familia. He was the last bar owner in town who refused to pay criminals for the right to operate his business. After about a half-hour of lockdown, we left the bar unscathed. Bar patrons in the next town over, however, were less fortunate. Three days after our ordeal, gunmen allegedly working for La Familia opened fire in a bar that refused to pay its quota, shooting five patrons, including two women.

By March 2012, bodies hanging from bridges or executed and dumped in mass graves or in front of public events were becoming relatively commonplace in the farming community where we lived. So we moved.

After settling in to our new home in a new state, my husband and I debated whether or not to vote in the presidential elections. We’d never voted, nor had any member of our family for that matter. Our family was disillusioned with the electoral process, and the “leftist” candidate, Andres Manuel López Obrador, had promised United States Vice-President Joe Biden that he would continue the drug war if he were elected president. Our family had always preferred grassroots organizing to participation in the electoral process.

But this election was different. My husband and I spent two years in Mexico State under the rule of Enrique Peña Nieto, and we watched as his security policies sent our quiet, close-knit town into a tailspin. Our friends and family were tortured in Atenco in 2006 during a violent police operation ordered by Peña Nieto. No government officials have been punished for the unthinkable things they did to our family, even though we still have to live with the emotional and physical consequences of the torture. On the contrary, Peña Nieto was rewarded for his deeds when his party named him their presidential candidate.

The #YoSoy132 student movement against Peña Nieto’s candidacy convinced us that voting against the man who had done us so much harm was both noble and necessary. We saw ourselves reflected in that movement. The students didn’t belong to a political party. They weren’t faithful followers of a candidate that they felt would single-handedly change Mexico for the better. They simply knew that Enrique Peña Nieto could not become the president of Mexico, and we knew that, too. So we decided to vote for Andres Manuel López Obrador.

Mexican law prohibits any changes to voter registration in the six months prior to an election, which meant that my husband was unable to change his voting district to our new home in the state of Oaxaca. On Election Day, he left early to vote at one of the Special Voting Booths set up for citizens who are voting outside of their districts.

When he arrived at the polling station, the line for those waiting to vote stretched down four city blocks. Because he had other obligations that day, he decided to return in the afternoon. He had until 6pm to vote. When he returned hours later, the line was much shorter, but then he found out why: earlier in the day, election officials handed out numbers to those waiting in line: 750 numbers, one for each ballot the Special Voting Booth received for citizens voting outside of their districts. The rest of those waiting in line were told to go home or find another Special Voting Booth--this voting booth had no more ballots.

My husband visited another three polling stations that were equipped with Special Voting Booths, and none had enough ballots for the citizens who wanted to vote. Nancy Davies, a Mexican citizen and founding member of the Oaxaca Study Action Group, reports that by 3:30 pm, signs were up in Oaxaca’s town square stating that none of the area’s six Special Voting Booths had ballots, news that she says nearly provoked a riot downtown.

As the 6 pm deadline closed in, those who did receive numbers were becoming anxious. One woman at the back of the line said that she had been waiting in line since 11am. An elderly gentleman who was just casting his vote at 6:30 said that he took his place in line at 8. He was number 326. As they waited all day in the burning sun then pouring rain, they watched people with numbers give up and go home.

Voters began to complain about the long waits to the election officials in charge of their polling stations. “There’s so few of us here. We should have voted already! How is it that you’re taking so long to let us vote?” complained one man to an election official, who told him to file a formal complaint with the Federal Elections Institute (IFE). A man who was unable to cast his vote commented that he believed election officials were intentionally delaying the voting process so that potential voters would give up and go home.

My husband and I were shocked and dismayed that he was unable to vote because the government had provided the Special Voting Booths with so few ballots. Those who are forced to vote in the Special Voting Booths instead of their designated polling stations are those who have been harmed the most by the federal government’s policies. They are Mexico’s internal refugees, displaced by the violence and insecurity that the current president unleashed when he deployed the military in the war on drugs. They are the unemployed who were forced to travel to look for work because there was none at home, thanks to the president’s disastrous economic policies. They know better than anyone else what is wrong with the federal government’s policies because they have lived it in flesh and blood, yet on July 1 they were denied their constitutional right to vote for the next president. 

Kristin Bricker, in Oaxaca.

AMLO: The last word still isn’t in

El Universal: Americas Program Original Translation of Excerpt

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, presidential candidate of the left, said that “the last word still isn’t in” in this election and that he will wait until the IFE’s final count to settle on a position.

“Taking into account the preliminary result of the IFE, the position I’m taking is to wait until we have completed the proceedings and have all of the results.

“There is an established legal proceeding that consists of carrying out a district-by-district review this Wednesday. They must review all of the proceedings and know the results, and we are going to wait for this result before we take a definite position,” said López Obrador.

In a short message that he gave after the president of the Federal Elections Institute (IFE), Leonardo Valdés, and President Felipe Calderón spoke on national television, the candidate from Tabasco assured that although “the electoral process was not fair,” his movement would not act irresponsibly.

He called on his followers in the PRD, PT, and MC parties, as well as the members of Morena [a political and social movement and civil association founded by him], to gather all of the information they could in order to help him settle on his position.

“Transparency is essential; it’s essential that we take into account all of the information. There is information that we have that indicates something different than what is being announced officially,” he reiterated. See Spanish Original.

Translated by Ryan Gentzler, Americas Program

Mexico ready to vote, watchful for fraud

Washington Post: The worst practices were curbed by incremental electoral reforms starting in the 1970s, and in 2000 the right-leaning National Action Party (PAN) ended PRI rule with Vicente Fox’s win. The PAN now competes across the country, with the smaller, leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) also fielding candidates in many districts.

Today, the parties act as mutual watchdogs, appealing to the electoral institute with complaints or allegations of rivals’ wrongdoing. Although public perceptions of the IFE suffered after the 2006 election crisis, today, about 75 percent of Mexicans have a “positive” or “normal” level of confidence in its integrity, pollster Roy Campos said.

“Unfortunately, voters’ confidence is based on candidates’ fraud claims,” Campos said, suggesting that IFE’s reputation can sink quickly again if controversy returns. Read more.

IFE: if there is a post-election conflict all ballots will be recounted

La Jornada: Americas Program Original Translation by Anna Moses
See Spanish Original.
Alonso Urrutia and Fabiola Martínez.
The 2006 election guide was carefully reviewed to correct any mistakes from re-occurring, affirmed the executive secretary.
Mexico City - Edmundo Jacobo Molina, the executive secretary of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) who is responsible for the operational portion of the election, anticipates that the week after the election will be the most complicated part of the process. He says, “If necessary, we will recount all of the ballots; if this scenario occurs, we are legally obligated to do so. We have a very big challenge ahead of us because the deadlines are short, but we will do it.”

Without legal reform in counting district votes, after a complex judicial process to replace the regulations and agreements, the official said, "We have carefully reviewed the guide from 2006 to learn what we had done well and correct what we had done badly," to change the structure of the IFE and improve the training of the officials so that they can complete their duties. "If there is good cause to recount the ballots, we will do it in each case," he said.

In 2006, there were "communication problems"
He is convinced that in strictly organizational terms, the election of 2006 was one that had the best standards of compliance: polling booths installed, trained officers who completed their tasks, fewer "untrained staff," a very quick approximate count including district counts. "The problem was more communicative than operative; all the indicators regarding operation were excellent."

He warns of another complex topic: 43 companies have announced carrying out surveys and quick counts on the night of the election. This substantial number requires the General Council to adopt provisions to guarantee that they have the technical support for them, with the release today of an agreement that the companies undertaking the counts must submit their methodologies no later than Monday to be made public; it will be an "inhibiting" mechanism so that there will be rigor in their counting and less disparate results.

Mexico ready to vote, watchful for fraud

Washington Post: MEXICO CITY — Mexican democracy has come a long way from the days when the ruling party would give out washing machines for votes and rip up ballots with the wrong box checked off.

Today, electoral regulators preside over an elaborate system of safeguards that have made stealing the presidency at the ballot box impossible, political analysts say. But they warn that the country’s July 1 election remains vulnerable to subtler forms of tampering and the shadowy influences of organized crime, along with some new twists on the old dirty tricks.

The worst electoral abuses in Mexico during the 20th century were typically the work of its long-ruling political dynasty, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). With polls showing the PRI cruising toward a big victory this year, election officials here have been making near-daily public assurances that the vote will be squeaky clean. Read more.

TEPJF and IFE reject the possibility of electoral fraud

El Universal: Americas Program Original Translation

The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) and the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF) signed an agreement to share information related to challenges facing the 2012 federal electoral process, to improve its production. 

The electoral authorities are "level-headed" and are responsible for working with commitment to the law, assured the president of the Federal Electoral Institute, Leonardo Valdés.

“In the campaigns you feel the heat,” indicated Valdés Zurita in an interview after the signing of the collaboration agreement between the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary and the Institute.

Leonardo Valdés and the president of the tribunal, Alejandro Luna Ramos, rejected the possibility that fraud could occur in the electoral process.
“I believe that there is no capacity for fraud,” said Luna Ramos.

The agreement signed by both institutions will allow for sharing information regarding challenges facing the 2012 federal electoral process and speed up its production.

“It does not matter to the IFE nor the tribunal who is the resulting winner. Our only motive is that the election results in accordance with the law,” said Valdés Zurita.

He reiterated that there is no greater legitimacy for a democratic government than that obtained through the vote.

“For this reason, respecting the verdict of the ballot box is a constitutional obligation,” emphasized Valdés.

Luna Ramos stated that the TEPJF will carry out its constitutional mandate in the moment of determining the presidential election and resolving election related challenges.

“Today more than ever no one doubts that Mexicans can go to the polls, with the security that the tribunal will have to protect them,” he indicated. 

See Spanish Original. 

Translation by Bonnie Ho, Americas Program