Teaching Comparative

Details for textbook generalizations

The Wichita Eagle (on Kansas.com) published an article credited to the Dallas Morning News that makes a number of good illustrations of what your textbook says about voting in Mexico.


Vote buying may have made difference in Mexico election

"MEXICO CITY - The women of Colonia Vicente Guerrero showed up at their precinct at noon July 2 to cast their ballots in the presidential election. But before they even reached their destination, representatives from Mexico's three major political parties stopped them with irresistible propositions, they said.

"Representatives of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and the National Action Party, or PAN, offered them beans, rice, sugar, salt and cooking oil, the women said. The offer from the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, included a couple of pounds of tortillas, but they had to provide names, addresses and phone numbers of at least one relative, the women said...

"At another polling place near the Zocalo, Lourdes de los Reyes, 53, a PRD polling observer, noticed some voters were taking pictures with their cell phones as they marked their choice for president, she recalled.

"When she questioned one voter, she said, she was told that 'in order to keep our jobs, we must vote against Lopez Obrador and for Felipe Calderon,' the PAN's candidate...

"Officials of the PRD, PAN and PRI acknowledge that there continues to be electoral abuse and say they welcome specific complaints that can be checked.

"The tactics, experts say, are reminiscent of the practices that the PRI used to remain in power for 71 years. The party was ousted from the presidential mansion in 2000 by Vicente Fox of the PAN.

"This election season, thousands of poor Mexicans were threatened with losing their health care and housing benefits if they did not vote for a particular candidate, according to a study by Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan citizens' group funded in part by the United Nations.

"As many as 4 million people receive benefits through state or local governments controlled by the three main parties, and those benefits often are used as carrots to persuade people to vote a certain way, said Silvia Alonso Felix, the alliance's executive director.

"The PRI continues to lead the way with such tactics, but the PAN and PRD are not far behind, Alonso said...

"Coercing votes and other illegal tactics are among the key issues in the aftermath of the recent presidential election. Calderon won by fewer than 244,000 votes out of more than 41 million cast...

"Calderon's margin represents fewer than two votes per polling place, of which there are about 130,000 in Mexico.

"Alonso said the possibility of voter coercion 'raises serious doubts about the winner of the presidential election and makes it all that more necessary to ensure certainty in the election results.'...

"'Democracy in Mexico exists for about 70 percent of the Mexican population,' said Primitivo Rodriguez, a longtime democracy activist. 'The 30 percent remaining is still under the thumb of political chieftains. You cannot have true democracy without real education. In other words, vote coercion is very much alive.'"

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:44 AM