Saturday, September 02, 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
Print Edition - Section Front
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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
Enlarge Image
# posted by Nancy T. @ 2:16 AM 
