Teaching Comparative

Protest and recount in Mexico

I assume that for once news about Mexican politics is readily available in the US and that Comparative teachers are keeping track of events and learning more about the administration of elections in Mexico. Nonetheless, this article from the New York Times was helpful to me.

Mexico Recount Begins, and Protests Go On

"ZAPOPAN, Mexico, Aug. 9 — An election official was quickly dealing out ballots like giant cards on a felt-covered table on Wednesday when Humberto Mejía’s hand shot into the stack like a striking snake. 'Wait!' the lawyer for the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution cried.

"He had spotted a ballot for the leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, that had mistakenly been put with the ballots for his conservative rival, Felipe Caleron. 'We’ve only counted two polling places this morning,' Mr. Mejía said, 'and I have found two more votes for Andrés Manuel.'...

"Across Mexico, judges, election officials and party representatives began the slow process of recounting hundreds of thousands of ballots from about 12,000 polling places. More than 180 magistrates oversaw the opening of packets containing ballots from the July 2 election that are to be counted again in 149 of 300 voting districts and 25 of the 32 states...

"With the political crisis deepening, Mexicans of all political stripes are hoping the partial recount will either put to rest Mr. López Obrador’s claims of widespread fraud or lend them credence, which might force the court to order a wider recount.

"On Saturday, a seven-member electoral tribunal charged with ratifying the results and declaring a president-elect rejected Mr. López Obrador’s claim that there were enough irregularities in the election to warrant recounting all the ballots. The narrow ruling left the judges little leeway to order more ballot boxes opened, though it is still possible, election law experts said.

"Instead, the judges ordered the ballot boxes opened in about 9 percent of the polling places after they concluded that Mr. López Obrador had presented evidence of arithmetical errors and, in some cases, fraud...

"Experts on election law said that while the partial recount was far less than Mr. López Obrador had wanted, it indicated a major concession to his party. What is more, counting ballots a second time in nearly 12,000 polling places could unearth a raft of errors that would give more leverage to proponents of a completely new tally...

"But election-law experts said the electoral tribunal would have a hard time justifying widening the recount to include other polling places because of the way its members wrote their ruling.

"In essence, the ruling says ballots should not be recounted simply because a political party has suspicions that the tally was manipulated; there must be empirical evidence. The judges would have to alter that precedent to order a wider recount...

"Most experts agree that the partial recount is unlikely to change the results, unless Mr. López Obrador’s theory of widespread fraud is correct..."


The Washington Post headlined the protests outside of Mexico City banks ("Protesters Barricade Banks in Mexico"), and noted that "All but one of Mexico's major banks are in the hands of foreign companies, and the industry's sell-off has been a symbol of the free-market reforms in Mexico disliked by the left...

"The protests had a nationalist tinge... 'Banamex is really Citigroup, a foreign bank that ransacks the country,' said Gerardo Fernandez, spokesman for the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:55 AM