Tuesday, September 19, 2006
A Country with Three Presidents
MEXICO:
A Country with Three Presidents
Diego Cevallos
http://www.pe.com/localnews/sanbernardino/stories/PE_News_Local_D_navarro18.3a435c3.html
MEXICO CITY, Sep 18 (IPS) - Mexico's left plans to re-lay the foundations of the country with a symbolic "government" chosen by its followers, working through social activism, and a party coalition acting through the country's institutions. The challenge it faces is to persuade the Mexican people, among whom approval of the left is declining, to support its goals and strategies, observers say.
The opposition movement, which is easily "big enough to force concessions from the regime," will catalyse "grievances of all varieties" and create difficulties for the government of the conservative president-elect, Felipe Calderón, to consolidate its power, Manuel Camacho, one of the leaders of the left, told IPS.
At an assembly dubbed the National Democratic Convention, which according to its organisers drew a million people together on Saturday in the capital, the left designated former Mexico City mayor Andrés López Obrador as the country's "legitimate president.." The former candidate lost the Jul. 2 elections because of fraud, his supporters say.
The Convention, born of a proposal set forth by López Obrador on Aug. 13, met for nearly four hours on Saturday and will reconvene on Mar. 21, 2007. Delegates from every Mexican state took part, some of whom had been elected in party assemblies, although anyone can register to participate.
Commissions will be set up to debate issues like national policy, civil resistance and proposals to rewrite the constitution. Despite predictions from the ruling National Action Party (PAN), the assembly was held without incidents.
So today, Mexico has an incumbent president, Vicente Fox, a president-elect, Calderón, who will take office in December, and a third proclaimed at a public meeting.
The proclamation of López Obrador as president was received in very different ways. Some observers considered it a farce, others greeted it with enthusiasm, and there were also those who saw it as something that could polarise Mexican society even further..
"The new leftwing movement is part of a process of identification that is highly valid in a democracy, but to go on to say that López Obrador is the legitimate president is quite a different thing," Silvia Alonso, head of the non-governmental Civic Alliance, told IPS.
"Although the present scenario is touchy, it opens up opportunities. Hopefully the right will recognise the role of the left, and manage to create an atmosphere conducive to reaching agreements," said the director of Civic Alliance, a group that has promoted social participation in public affairs since 1994, and acts as an independent observer in elections.
The Fox administration played down the left's strategy Monday, while the PAN, to which Calderón belongs, said that in refusing to recognise the established institutions, López Obrador was doing harm to the country.
There is only one constitutional president in Mexico and he is Fox, and there is a president-elect who is Calderón, so that "if any private citizen puts himself outside of our own laws (by declaring himself president), only he can take responsibility for that," said government spokesman Rubén Aguilar.
Miguel Granados, a columnist for the leftwing weekly Proceso, said that "instead of mocking or quaking in fear, the outgoing and incoming governments and their party" should make an effort "to understand the essence and the significance of this post-election period."
Granados maintains that the challenge faced by the left is for the "strong tide of citizens who follow López Obrador, who form part of, but not all of, the Mexican people," to persuade the rest of society to accept their goals.
López Obrador, the candidate of the Coalition for the Good of All, which brought together his Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) along with the small Convergencia and Trabajo parties -- and as of Thursday is known as the Progressive Broad Front -- won the votes of 20 percent of the 71.3 million Mexicans on the electoral roll in the July elections.
After his refusal to recognise defeat by Calderón -- who took 20.8 percent of the vote -- and his acts of resistance including the 48-day occupation by his supporters of the main Zócalo square and Reforma avenue in Mexico City, support for the left among the population has been waning, according to opinion polls.
"Even though the civil resistance he led has decreased his popularity, there is no doubt that he still has the support of several million Mexicans. If he is determined to destabilise the country, as he has threatened to do, there is good reason to believe that he would be able to do so," wrote a columnist for the newspaper Reforma, Sergio Sarmiento.
The only foreign government that has indicated that it will not recognise Calderón is that of Venezuela, whose President Hugo Chávez said that the right had perpetrated a fraud in Mexico.
But López Obrador says that to accept Calderón as president would go against his principles and the "true will of the people."
After being proclaimed "legitimate president," López Obrador said he accepted the symbolic post because it represents "an act of peaceful civil resistance," and a warning to his opponents "that they should learn to respect the will of the people."
He said he would take up the position in November and will appoint a cabinet. Together they will travel around the country and take note of the demands of the people. In some aspects, the proposal is similar to the shadow cabinets that function in certain democracies.
He will also mark Calderón's every move in an attempt to throw up obstacles for his administration.
The leader of the left believes that Calderón will be a spurious president, a "puppet of the right" as he has called him. He states that he will neither enter into discussions nor negotiate with Calderón nor with the PAN.
But leftwing political parties, legislators and local authorities, apparently, are willing to do so. Before the National Democratic Convention was held, the parties in the Coalition for the Good of All announced they would unite in a Progressive Broad Front.
Camacho, who served as foreign minister in the administration of Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) -- which ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000 -- later became a close collaborator of López Obrador's. He explained that through the Front and the Convention, the left will push forward the political and economic changes that the country needs.
The former candidate will be a "legitimate president" who will take a critical stance towards the "legal president," but will be above all someone "who listens to the people, comforts them and provides leadership in the defence of their cause," he explained.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Broad Front will carry on the struggle within the institutions "against the opposite, rightwing pole."
Among the left's goals are to curb free trade and privatisation, and encourage the fight against poverty. It also wants to reform the constitution and the country's electoral institutions, which it sees as serving the interests of the economic elites. (END/2006)
A Country with Three Presidents
Diego Cevallos
http://www.pe.com/localnews/sanbernardino/stories/PE_News_Local_D_navarro18.3a435c3.html
MEXICO CITY, Sep 18 (IPS) - Mexico's left plans to re-lay the foundations of the country with a symbolic "government" chosen by its followers, working through social activism, and a party coalition acting through the country's institutions. The challenge it faces is to persuade the Mexican people, among whom approval of the left is declining, to support its goals and strategies, observers say.
The opposition movement, which is easily "big enough to force concessions from the regime," will catalyse "grievances of all varieties" and create difficulties for the government of the conservative president-elect, Felipe Calderón, to consolidate its power, Manuel Camacho, one of the leaders of the left, told IPS.
At an assembly dubbed the National Democratic Convention, which according to its organisers drew a million people together on Saturday in the capital, the left designated former Mexico City mayor Andrés López Obrador as the country's "legitimate president.." The former candidate lost the Jul. 2 elections because of fraud, his supporters say.
The Convention, born of a proposal set forth by López Obrador on Aug. 13, met for nearly four hours on Saturday and will reconvene on Mar. 21, 2007. Delegates from every Mexican state took part, some of whom had been elected in party assemblies, although anyone can register to participate.
Commissions will be set up to debate issues like national policy, civil resistance and proposals to rewrite the constitution. Despite predictions from the ruling National Action Party (PAN), the assembly was held without incidents.
So today, Mexico has an incumbent president, Vicente Fox, a president-elect, Calderón, who will take office in December, and a third proclaimed at a public meeting.
The proclamation of López Obrador as president was received in very different ways. Some observers considered it a farce, others greeted it with enthusiasm, and there were also those who saw it as something that could polarise Mexican society even further..
"The new leftwing movement is part of a process of identification that is highly valid in a democracy, but to go on to say that López Obrador is the legitimate president is quite a different thing," Silvia Alonso, head of the non-governmental Civic Alliance, told IPS.
"Although the present scenario is touchy, it opens up opportunities. Hopefully the right will recognise the role of the left, and manage to create an atmosphere conducive to reaching agreements," said the director of Civic Alliance, a group that has promoted social participation in public affairs since 1994, and acts as an independent observer in elections.
The Fox administration played down the left's strategy Monday, while the PAN, to which Calderón belongs, said that in refusing to recognise the established institutions, López Obrador was doing harm to the country.
There is only one constitutional president in Mexico and he is Fox, and there is a president-elect who is Calderón, so that "if any private citizen puts himself outside of our own laws (by declaring himself president), only he can take responsibility for that," said government spokesman Rubén Aguilar.
Miguel Granados, a columnist for the leftwing weekly Proceso, said that "instead of mocking or quaking in fear, the outgoing and incoming governments and their party" should make an effort "to understand the essence and the significance of this post-election period."
Granados maintains that the challenge faced by the left is for the "strong tide of citizens who follow López Obrador, who form part of, but not all of, the Mexican people," to persuade the rest of society to accept their goals.
López Obrador, the candidate of the Coalition for the Good of All, which brought together his Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) along with the small Convergencia and Trabajo parties -- and as of Thursday is known as the Progressive Broad Front -- won the votes of 20 percent of the 71.3 million Mexicans on the electoral roll in the July elections.
After his refusal to recognise defeat by Calderón -- who took 20.8 percent of the vote -- and his acts of resistance including the 48-day occupation by his supporters of the main Zócalo square and Reforma avenue in Mexico City, support for the left among the population has been waning, according to opinion polls.
"Even though the civil resistance he led has decreased his popularity, there is no doubt that he still has the support of several million Mexicans. If he is determined to destabilise the country, as he has threatened to do, there is good reason to believe that he would be able to do so," wrote a columnist for the newspaper Reforma, Sergio Sarmiento.
The only foreign government that has indicated that it will not recognise Calderón is that of Venezuela, whose President Hugo Chávez said that the right had perpetrated a fraud in Mexico.
But López Obrador says that to accept Calderón as president would go against his principles and the "true will of the people."
After being proclaimed "legitimate president," López Obrador said he accepted the symbolic post because it represents "an act of peaceful civil resistance," and a warning to his opponents "that they should learn to respect the will of the people."
He said he would take up the position in November and will appoint a cabinet. Together they will travel around the country and take note of the demands of the people. In some aspects, the proposal is similar to the shadow cabinets that function in certain democracies.
He will also mark Calderón's every move in an attempt to throw up obstacles for his administration.
The leader of the left believes that Calderón will be a spurious president, a "puppet of the right" as he has called him. He states that he will neither enter into discussions nor negotiate with Calderón nor with the PAN.
But leftwing political parties, legislators and local authorities, apparently, are willing to do so. Before the National Democratic Convention was held, the parties in the Coalition for the Good of All announced they would unite in a Progressive Broad Front.
Camacho, who served as foreign minister in the administration of Carlos Salinas (1988-1994) of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) -- which ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000 -- later became a close collaborator of López Obrador's. He explained that through the Front and the Convention, the left will push forward the political and economic changes that the country needs.
The former candidate will be a "legitimate president" who will take a critical stance towards the "legal president," but will be above all someone "who listens to the people, comforts them and provides leadership in the defence of their cause," he explained.
Meanwhile, the Progressive Broad Front will carry on the struggle within the institutions "against the opposite, rightwing pole."
Among the left's goals are to curb free trade and privatisation, and encourage the fight against poverty. It also wants to reform the constitution and the country's electoral institutions, which it sees as serving the interests of the economic elites. (END/2006)
Tribunal Fails Mexico's Nascent Democracy
U.S.-Mexico Border
Tribunal Fails Mexico's Nascent Democracy
by Aldo Nicolás Mena
Regardless of whether you supported the candidacy of Felipe Calderón of the Partido de Accion Nacional [PAN] or the candidacy of Andres Manuel López Obrador of the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica [PRD], it's hard to feel optimistic about recent developments in the Mexican political system.
The problem started on August 5, when Mexico's top electoral court, the Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federacion [TFEPJ], ordered a partial recount of the official results of the disputed July 2 presidential election. Then, on August 28, the tribunal, commonly referred to as "El Trife," issued a ruling that largely dismissed the allegations of fraud that had been presented by the leftist candidate. Finally, on September 5, the tribunal, as expected, certified the results of the presidential election and officially recognized Calderón as Mexico's president-elect.
Unfortunately, in issuing this set of rulings, the tribunal has created a political crisis that has eroded the credibility of Mexico's electoral system and could potentially destabilize Mexico's nascent democracy.
To begin with, the tribunal has empowered the López Obrador movement, and virtually guaranteed continued civil unrest and political conflict in Mexico. López Obrador has made it abundantly clear that he will never recognize a government headed by Calderón. He has vowed to establish a form of parallel government, draft a new constitution, declare himself the legitimate [as opposed to legal] president.
He has also vowed to escalate his already formidable campaign of civil resistance. Since July 30, his supporters have managed to disrupt commerce and produce chaos in Mexico City by occupying the city's main plaza and sections of the city's elegant Paseo de la Reforma. His supporters in the legislature were able to prevent President Vicente Fox from delivering his final state-of-the-nation address, and are likely to disrupt Independence Day festivities as well as the inauguration of president-elect Calderón on December 1. There is even the possibility, however remote, that this movement could eventually turn violent, especially if the government attempts to defuse it with force.
Of course, the tribunal could have opted to defuse the entire situation early on by simply ordering a complete recount. The issue confronting the tribunal was clear: Were there enough irregularities and instances of fraud in the July 2 presidential election to warrant a recount of all 41 million votes? Unencumbered by any legal precedents, it enjoyed wide discretionary authority on this issue, and could have applied broader constitutional principles in resolving this issue. Instead, it chose to apply a strict and limited interpretation of electoral law.
Only a full recount could have definitively vanquished any doubts about which candidate actually won the presidency on July 2. As journalist and professor, Denise Dresser, explained in a Los Angeles Times editorial in July: "López Obrador, of course, has every right to legally question the results of a close election, just as the country has every right to demand that he respect its results. A vote-by-vote recount would leave him no recourse but to do so." More recently, Joy Olson, the Executive Director of the Washington Office on Latin America noted that: "Those who see this protest as a mere inconvenience and political posturing are missing the point. The protesters believe that the election was stolen from [López Obrador]. The historic, often personal, experience with past stolen elections gives added support [to] these beliefs."
The tribunal's decisions have also effectively denied Calderón the political mandate he will need to govern Mexico. He will assume the presidency of Mexico with the taint of illegitimacy. A full recount may have resulted in a victory for López Obrador, but it could have also firmly and unquestionably established Calderón as President Fox's legitimate successor.
Even President Fox's legacy has been compromised by the tribunal's decisions. Due to the political crisis that the tribunal's intransigence on these issues has produced, his departure from the presidency stands in stark contrast to his triumphant assumption of this office in 2000 when Mexico celebrated his victory over 71 years of authoritarianism. As it stands now, he finds himself embroiled in a seemingly intractable political crisis, and has the dubious distinction of being the first president in modern Mexican history not to deliver a state-of-the-nation address. In all likelihood, his presidency will end not with a bang but a whimper.
At this critical point in Mexico's political evolution, the members of the tribunal apparently failed to understand the nuances of the larger issue they were confronting. They failed to understand that Mexicans needed to be assured, perhaps now more than ever, that these elections were fair, and that Mexico had, in fact, evolved and entered a new era of democratic accountability. The tribunal failed to understand that this was not the time for decisions based on numeric calculations or legal technicalities. In short, the tribunal failed to understand that what Mexicans needed was certainty.
Ultimately, however, the tribunal has not only failed to understand and definitively resolve the larger issue of whether the July 2 presidential election was fair, it has failed Mexico's nascent democracy.
* * *
Aldo Nicolás Mena is a native El Pasoan, and a firm believer in the "necessity" of alternative media sources. He is co-founder of EagleandSerpent.org, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting an informed understanding of the Mexican political system in the United States, and publishes a blog that tracks political developments in Mexico entitled MexicoInFocus.com. He received his B.A. in English and Political Science, and his M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. Please forward any inquiries or comments to: mexicoinfocus@terra.com.
Tribunal Fails Mexico's Nascent Democracy
by Aldo Nicolás Mena
Regardless of whether you supported the candidacy of Felipe Calderón of the Partido de Accion Nacional [PAN] or the candidacy of Andres Manuel López Obrador of the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica [PRD], it's hard to feel optimistic about recent developments in the Mexican political system.
The problem started on August 5, when Mexico's top electoral court, the Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federacion [TFEPJ], ordered a partial recount of the official results of the disputed July 2 presidential election. Then, on August 28, the tribunal, commonly referred to as "El Trife," issued a ruling that largely dismissed the allegations of fraud that had been presented by the leftist candidate. Finally, on September 5, the tribunal, as expected, certified the results of the presidential election and officially recognized Calderón as Mexico's president-elect.
Unfortunately, in issuing this set of rulings, the tribunal has created a political crisis that has eroded the credibility of Mexico's electoral system and could potentially destabilize Mexico's nascent democracy.
To begin with, the tribunal has empowered the López Obrador movement, and virtually guaranteed continued civil unrest and political conflict in Mexico. López Obrador has made it abundantly clear that he will never recognize a government headed by Calderón. He has vowed to establish a form of parallel government, draft a new constitution, declare himself the legitimate [as opposed to legal] president.
He has also vowed to escalate his already formidable campaign of civil resistance. Since July 30, his supporters have managed to disrupt commerce and produce chaos in Mexico City by occupying the city's main plaza and sections of the city's elegant Paseo de la Reforma. His supporters in the legislature were able to prevent President Vicente Fox from delivering his final state-of-the-nation address, and are likely to disrupt Independence Day festivities as well as the inauguration of president-elect Calderón on December 1. There is even the possibility, however remote, that this movement could eventually turn violent, especially if the government attempts to defuse it with force.
Of course, the tribunal could have opted to defuse the entire situation early on by simply ordering a complete recount. The issue confronting the tribunal was clear: Were there enough irregularities and instances of fraud in the July 2 presidential election to warrant a recount of all 41 million votes? Unencumbered by any legal precedents, it enjoyed wide discretionary authority on this issue, and could have applied broader constitutional principles in resolving this issue. Instead, it chose to apply a strict and limited interpretation of electoral law.
Only a full recount could have definitively vanquished any doubts about which candidate actually won the presidency on July 2. As journalist and professor, Denise Dresser, explained in a Los Angeles Times editorial in July: "López Obrador, of course, has every right to legally question the results of a close election, just as the country has every right to demand that he respect its results. A vote-by-vote recount would leave him no recourse but to do so." More recently, Joy Olson, the Executive Director of the Washington Office on Latin America noted that: "Those who see this protest as a mere inconvenience and political posturing are missing the point. The protesters believe that the election was stolen from [López Obrador]. The historic, often personal, experience with past stolen elections gives added support [to] these beliefs."
The tribunal's decisions have also effectively denied Calderón the political mandate he will need to govern Mexico. He will assume the presidency of Mexico with the taint of illegitimacy. A full recount may have resulted in a victory for López Obrador, but it could have also firmly and unquestionably established Calderón as President Fox's legitimate successor.
Even President Fox's legacy has been compromised by the tribunal's decisions. Due to the political crisis that the tribunal's intransigence on these issues has produced, his departure from the presidency stands in stark contrast to his triumphant assumption of this office in 2000 when Mexico celebrated his victory over 71 years of authoritarianism. As it stands now, he finds himself embroiled in a seemingly intractable political crisis, and has the dubious distinction of being the first president in modern Mexican history not to deliver a state-of-the-nation address. In all likelihood, his presidency will end not with a bang but a whimper.
At this critical point in Mexico's political evolution, the members of the tribunal apparently failed to understand the nuances of the larger issue they were confronting. They failed to understand that Mexicans needed to be assured, perhaps now more than ever, that these elections were fair, and that Mexico had, in fact, evolved and entered a new era of democratic accountability. The tribunal failed to understand that this was not the time for decisions based on numeric calculations or legal technicalities. In short, the tribunal failed to understand that what Mexicans needed was certainty.
Ultimately, however, the tribunal has not only failed to understand and definitively resolve the larger issue of whether the July 2 presidential election was fair, it has failed Mexico's nascent democracy.
* * *
Aldo Nicolás Mena is a native El Pasoan, and a firm believer in the "necessity" of alternative media sources. He is co-founder of EagleandSerpent.org, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting an informed understanding of the Mexican political system in the United States, and publishes a blog that tracks political developments in Mexico entitled MexicoInFocus.com. He received his B.A. in English and Political Science, and his M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. Please forward any inquiries or comments to: mexicoinfocus@terra.com.
Monday, September 04, 2006
CEPR ADDS UP AVAILABLE RECOUNT DATA, FINDS SIGNIFICANT VOTE REDUCTION FOR CALDERON
Link: http://www.cepr.net/pressreleases/2006_09_02.htm
Result Could Explain Electoral Authorities' Reluctance to Release Recount Data
For Immediate Release: September 2, 2006
Contact: Mark Weisbrot, 202-746-7264
Dan Beeton, 202-293-5380 x 104; 202-256-6116 (cell)
WASHINGTON - The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has found a significant loss of votes for PAN presidential candidate Felipe Calderón in a sample of recounted ballots.
Adding up the numbers for 1,706 ballot boxes (casillas) shows a loss of 1,362 votes for Felipe Calderón. Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PBT shows a gain of 77 votes.
"This is inexplicably one-sided, with Calderón losing votes but López Obrador not losing any," said CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot. "It is also a significant percentage of votes in an election this close."
The 1,362 votes lost by Calderón represent 0.54 percent of his votes in these ballot boxes.
The result for the whole group of recounted ballot boxes would likely show a similar percentage, since the above ballot box totals were chosen randomly from the documents posted on the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF) web site. The ballot box totals compiled by CEPR comprise 14.4 percent of the 11,839 ballot boxes that were recounted.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has been searching through many thousands of pages in 375 documents [www.trife.org.mx (see "Ãltimas sentencias dictadas")] released over the past week by the TEPJF, for numbers on the recount conducted by the TEPJF from August 9 to August 13. The process is laborious but most of the results appear to be buried in these documents.
In other words, the full recount results might be available but it takes several days of research to find and compile the numbers for 11,839 ballot boxes scattered among many thousands of pages of documents.
Although the recount was completed nearly three weeks ago, the TEPJF has refused to release the numbers showing how the candidates' vote totals were changed by the recount. This contrasts sharply to the procedure followed for the preliminary and second vote tallies in July, when the results were made public immediately.
"This certainly casts doubt on the electoral authorities' decision to reject a full recount," said Weisbrot. "And it makes the TEPJF's decision not to release the recounted vote totals look even worse."*
See also CEPR's most recent paper examining the "adding up" errors in the vote count: http://www.cepr.net/publications/mexico_discrepancies_2006_08.pdf
*Last Monday the TEPJF released the results of its annulment of 237,736 votes; many press accounts mistakenly reported these numbers as the results of the recount, which they were not. The ballot boxes where votes were annulled are not the same as those which were recounted. See http://www.trife.org.mx/consultas/boletines/archivos/079-2006.html.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. CEPR's Advisory Board of Economists includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and Eileen Appelbaum, Professor and Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University.
###
Center for Economic and Policy Research, 1611 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 293-5380, Fax: (202) 588-1356, Home: www.cepr.net
Result Could Explain Electoral Authorities' Reluctance to Release Recount Data
For Immediate Release: September 2, 2006
Contact: Mark Weisbrot, 202-746-7264
Dan Beeton, 202-293-5380 x 104; 202-256-6116 (cell)
WASHINGTON - The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has found a significant loss of votes for PAN presidential candidate Felipe Calderón in a sample of recounted ballots.
Adding up the numbers for 1,706 ballot boxes (casillas) shows a loss of 1,362 votes for Felipe Calderón. Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PBT shows a gain of 77 votes.
"This is inexplicably one-sided, with Calderón losing votes but López Obrador not losing any," said CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot. "It is also a significant percentage of votes in an election this close."
The 1,362 votes lost by Calderón represent 0.54 percent of his votes in these ballot boxes.
The result for the whole group of recounted ballot boxes would likely show a similar percentage, since the above ballot box totals were chosen randomly from the documents posted on the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF) web site. The ballot box totals compiled by CEPR comprise 14.4 percent of the 11,839 ballot boxes that were recounted.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has been searching through many thousands of pages in 375 documents [www.trife.org.mx (see "Ãltimas sentencias dictadas")] released over the past week by the TEPJF, for numbers on the recount conducted by the TEPJF from August 9 to August 13. The process is laborious but most of the results appear to be buried in these documents.
In other words, the full recount results might be available but it takes several days of research to find and compile the numbers for 11,839 ballot boxes scattered among many thousands of pages of documents.
Although the recount was completed nearly three weeks ago, the TEPJF has refused to release the numbers showing how the candidates' vote totals were changed by the recount. This contrasts sharply to the procedure followed for the preliminary and second vote tallies in July, when the results were made public immediately.
"This certainly casts doubt on the electoral authorities' decision to reject a full recount," said Weisbrot. "And it makes the TEPJF's decision not to release the recounted vote totals look even worse."*
See also CEPR's most recent paper examining the "adding up" errors in the vote count: http://www.cepr.net/publications/mexico_discrepancies_2006_08.pdf
*Last Monday the TEPJF released the results of its annulment of 237,736 votes; many press accounts mistakenly reported these numbers as the results of the recount, which they were not. The ballot boxes where votes were annulled are not the same as those which were recounted. See http://www.trife.org.mx/consultas/boletines/archivos/079-2006.html.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. CEPR's Advisory Board of Economists includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and Eileen Appelbaum, Professor and Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University.
###
Center for Economic and Policy Research, 1611 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 293-5380, Fax: (202) 588-1356, Home: www.cepr.net
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Protest Keeps Fox From Giving State of the Union Speech
September 2, 2006
Protest Keeps Fox From Giving State of the Union Speech
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 1 — Leftist lawmakers who have charged that fraud marred the presidential election in July staged a protest inside Congress that prevented President Vicente Fox from making his final state of the union speech to lawmakers on Friday, ending a tense day of political brinksmanship here.
Federal riot police officers and soldiers with water cannons had sealed off the Mexican Congress with miles of steel fence to protect Mr. Fox from thousands of leftist protesters camped out in the city’s center.
The president had vowed he would give his last state of the union message, despite threats from the leftist candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his followers to stop him.
At the last minute, however, Mr. López Obrador backed down. In front of at least 5,000 supporters in the capital’s central square, Mr. López Obrador, the former mayor of this sprawling city, told his followers it would be a mistake to confront the barricades and the police surrounding Congress. He said the “fascist” government of Mr. Fox would seize on any clashes between the police and the protesters to justify the brutal repression of his movement.
“We are not going to fall into any trap, we are not going to fall into any provocation,” he told the crowd, which had waited through a rainstorm to hear him speak. “Only those who are not in the right resort to force and violence, and we are in the right.”
Still, lawmakers from Mr. López Obrador’s Democratic Revolution Party protested inside the Chamber of Deputies, taking over the podium just before President Fox was to speak at 7 p.m. Several waved Mexican flags and signs calling Mr. Fox “a traitor to democracy.” The president of the chamber, Deputy Jorge Zermiño, was forced to call a recess.
Mr. Fox arrived 15 minutes later. As he entered the chamber, wearing the traditional red, white and green presidential sash, leaders of his party said it would be impossible for him to speak. He dropped off his yearly report, turned on his heel and left.
At 9 p.m., the government broadcast a recorded version of the president’s speech, complete with pictures of happy citizens to illustrate the gains his government has made in housing, education and health care.
Mr. Fox staunchly defended the balance of powers and the government institutions Mr. López Obrador claims are corrupt, notably the Federal Election Institute and the electoral tribunal. He also stressed that the rule of law was the basis of democracy and he took a veiled shot at Mr. López Obrador, saying “no one should try to corral democracy through intransigence and violence.”
“Whoever attacks our laws and institutions, attacks our history, attacks Mexico,” he said.
Mr. López Obrador claims he won the election, even though an official count, vetted by the country’s highest electoral tribunal, showed that the candidate from Mr. Fox’s National Action Party, Felipe Calderón, eked out a razor-thin victory.
Rather than concede, Mr. López Obrador has promised to convene his own national assembly and set up a parallel government this month. He has said that he will never recognize Mr. Calderón’s victory and has declared that Mr. Fox violated Mexican election law by campaigning for Mr. Calderón, as did various business leaders who spent millions on attack ads against Mr. López Obrador in the last days of the campaign.
He also claimed that his opponents stuffed ballot boxes with votes for Mr. Calderón and disposed of votes for him in some states, a charge Mr. Calderón’s aides called absurd.
On Friday, at least 6,000 police officers in riot gear ringed the congressional building with steel barricades and blocked nearby subway stations to discourage demonstrations. Before the lawmakers’ protest, the only demonstration occurred just before 6 p.m., when a small group from the Francisco Villa Popular Front, a militant group allied with Mr. López Obrador, painted antigovernment slogans on the fence and threw rocks at the wall and at the police, who ignored them.
For more than a month, thousands of Mr. López Obrador’s supporters have blocked the major avenue running through the city, Paseo de la Reforma, and camped out in the main square, Plaza de la Constitution.
Newly elected lawmakers from Mr. López Obrador’s party arrived en masse at the legislative building about 1 p.m., broke through one of the barricades, marched into the chamber and denounced the presence of the president’s federal police.
“This is unforgivable,” announced Senator Carlos Navarette. “The chambers should not be invaded by the federal police. This is the house of the deputies, not of the president.”
Mr. Navarette later led the protest among the lawmakers, denouncing the ring of police officers outside as an infringement on Mexicans’ right to protest as his partisans rushed the dais and occupied it.
Earlier this week, an electoral tribunal charged with ratifying the election and resolving challenges threw out most of Mr. López Obrador’s arguments that there was widespread fraud. The court still must rule on his request to annul the election on grounds that the president and private businesses interfered too much in the campaign.
Aides to Mr. López Obrador said he had acknowledged privately that the court would probably name Mr. Calderón president-elect next week.
What form Mr. López Obrador’s protest movement will now take remains unclear, but it is certain to keep him in the public eye for the next six years and make it hard for Mr. Calderón to govern.
“He’s saying to the government, ‘Everything that I am going to do is going to give you trouble,’ ” a close adviser said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Antonio Betancourt and Marc Lacey contributed reporting for this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/world/americas/02mexico.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=americas&pagewanted=print
Protest Keeps Fox From Giving State of the Union Speech
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 1 — Leftist lawmakers who have charged that fraud marred the presidential election in July staged a protest inside Congress that prevented President Vicente Fox from making his final state of the union speech to lawmakers on Friday, ending a tense day of political brinksmanship here.
Federal riot police officers and soldiers with water cannons had sealed off the Mexican Congress with miles of steel fence to protect Mr. Fox from thousands of leftist protesters camped out in the city’s center.
The president had vowed he would give his last state of the union message, despite threats from the leftist candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his followers to stop him.
At the last minute, however, Mr. López Obrador backed down. In front of at least 5,000 supporters in the capital’s central square, Mr. López Obrador, the former mayor of this sprawling city, told his followers it would be a mistake to confront the barricades and the police surrounding Congress. He said the “fascist” government of Mr. Fox would seize on any clashes between the police and the protesters to justify the brutal repression of his movement.
“We are not going to fall into any trap, we are not going to fall into any provocation,” he told the crowd, which had waited through a rainstorm to hear him speak. “Only those who are not in the right resort to force and violence, and we are in the right.”
Still, lawmakers from Mr. López Obrador’s Democratic Revolution Party protested inside the Chamber of Deputies, taking over the podium just before President Fox was to speak at 7 p.m. Several waved Mexican flags and signs calling Mr. Fox “a traitor to democracy.” The president of the chamber, Deputy Jorge Zermiño, was forced to call a recess.
Mr. Fox arrived 15 minutes later. As he entered the chamber, wearing the traditional red, white and green presidential sash, leaders of his party said it would be impossible for him to speak. He dropped off his yearly report, turned on his heel and left.
At 9 p.m., the government broadcast a recorded version of the president’s speech, complete with pictures of happy citizens to illustrate the gains his government has made in housing, education and health care.
Mr. Fox staunchly defended the balance of powers and the government institutions Mr. López Obrador claims are corrupt, notably the Federal Election Institute and the electoral tribunal. He also stressed that the rule of law was the basis of democracy and he took a veiled shot at Mr. López Obrador, saying “no one should try to corral democracy through intransigence and violence.”
“Whoever attacks our laws and institutions, attacks our history, attacks Mexico,” he said.
Mr. López Obrador claims he won the election, even though an official count, vetted by the country’s highest electoral tribunal, showed that the candidate from Mr. Fox’s National Action Party, Felipe Calderón, eked out a razor-thin victory.
Rather than concede, Mr. López Obrador has promised to convene his own national assembly and set up a parallel government this month. He has said that he will never recognize Mr. Calderón’s victory and has declared that Mr. Fox violated Mexican election law by campaigning for Mr. Calderón, as did various business leaders who spent millions on attack ads against Mr. López Obrador in the last days of the campaign.
He also claimed that his opponents stuffed ballot boxes with votes for Mr. Calderón and disposed of votes for him in some states, a charge Mr. Calderón’s aides called absurd.
On Friday, at least 6,000 police officers in riot gear ringed the congressional building with steel barricades and blocked nearby subway stations to discourage demonstrations. Before the lawmakers’ protest, the only demonstration occurred just before 6 p.m., when a small group from the Francisco Villa Popular Front, a militant group allied with Mr. López Obrador, painted antigovernment slogans on the fence and threw rocks at the wall and at the police, who ignored them.
For more than a month, thousands of Mr. López Obrador’s supporters have blocked the major avenue running through the city, Paseo de la Reforma, and camped out in the main square, Plaza de la Constitution.
Newly elected lawmakers from Mr. López Obrador’s party arrived en masse at the legislative building about 1 p.m., broke through one of the barricades, marched into the chamber and denounced the presence of the president’s federal police.
“This is unforgivable,” announced Senator Carlos Navarette. “The chambers should not be invaded by the federal police. This is the house of the deputies, not of the president.”
Mr. Navarette later led the protest among the lawmakers, denouncing the ring of police officers outside as an infringement on Mexicans’ right to protest as his partisans rushed the dais and occupied it.
Earlier this week, an electoral tribunal charged with ratifying the election and resolving challenges threw out most of Mr. López Obrador’s arguments that there was widespread fraud. The court still must rule on his request to annul the election on grounds that the president and private businesses interfered too much in the campaign.
Aides to Mr. López Obrador said he had acknowledged privately that the court would probably name Mr. Calderón president-elect next week.
What form Mr. López Obrador’s protest movement will now take remains unclear, but it is certain to keep him in the public eye for the next six years and make it hard for Mr. Calderón to govern.
“He’s saying to the government, ‘Everything that I am going to do is going to give you trouble,’ ” a close adviser said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Antonio Betancourt and Marc Lacey contributed reporting for this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/world/americas/02mexico.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=americas&pagewanted=print
Mexican President Forced Off Podium
12:47 pm, 02 Sep 2006
Mexican President Vicente Fox abandoned his state of the nation speech this afternoon after leftist lawmakers claiming fraud at elections in July seized the podium in the Congress.
President Fox handed a written version of his speech to Congress officials and said he was leaving the building without trying to deliver the address.
Dozens of legislators marched up to the podium, some with banners calling Fox a traitor to democracy.
The Speaker ordered a recess after the lawmakers refused to return to their seats.
The left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution accuses Fox of complicity in a massive fraud at the July 2nd presidential election to give victory to conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon.
© NewsRoom 2006
Globe and Mail
The Mexican reality
ARNO KOPECKY
Edmonton -- To note that Mexico's electoral process was "revamped in the 1990s" seems a facile dismissal of recent history -- namely,
seven uninterrupted decades of rigged elections (Mexico's Sore Loser -- editorial, Aug. 30). As a journalist who has lived and worked in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca, I can personally attest to the ongoing fact of vote fraud in at least some parts of the country.
The much-quoted European Union observers who approved the election did so because they focused on the voting booths. But in Mexico, fraud occurs elsewhere, when party representatives purchase the votes of entire rural communities with a few sacks of corn and a tractor or two. Other observers, such as California-based Global Exchange, are aware of this and have supported Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's position.
As for the "independence" of the federal electoral tribunal, one wonders how one of its judges, Fernando Ojest, could say four days ago: "We can tell people that today their votes were worth something and that they are definitive." It appears that, despite having yet to examine all of Mr. Obrador's allegations, this court's objectivity didn't prevent it from making up its mind in advance.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060901.LETTERS01-6/TPStory/Comment
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ARNO KOPECKY
Edmonton -- To note that Mexico's electoral process was "revamped in the 1990s" seems a facile dismissal of recent history -- namely,
seven uninterrupted decades of rigged elections (Mexico's Sore Loser -- editorial, Aug. 30). As a journalist who has lived and worked in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca, I can personally attest to the ongoing fact of vote fraud in at least some parts of the country.
The much-quoted European Union observers who approved the election did so because they focused on the voting booths. But in Mexico, fraud occurs elsewhere, when party representatives purchase the votes of entire rural communities with a few sacks of corn and a tractor or two. Other observers, such as California-based Global Exchange, are aware of this and have supported Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's position.
As for the "independence" of the federal electoral tribunal, one wonders how one of its judges, Fernando Ojest, could say four days ago: "We can tell people that today their votes were worth something and that they are definitive." It appears that, despite having yet to examine all of Mr. Obrador's allegations, this court's objectivity didn't prevent it from making up its mind in advance.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060901.LETTERS01-6/TPStory/Comment
Print Edition - Section Front
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