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Election Tests Mexico's Democracy |
Posted:
07.10.06
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This month's presidential election in Mexico, fought over issues
of poverty and Mexico's relationship with the United States, is
facing court challenges reminiscent of the 2000 U.S. presidential
election.
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 Felipe
Calderon, a conservative candidate from the ruling party, eked
out a victory against leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
in Mexico's July 2 elections.
They were separated by just 236,000 votes out of more than 41
million votes cast.
But Lopez Obrador has refused to accept defeat and has filed
a legal challenge.
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Mexican electoral
process |
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 The
agency that ran the election, the Federal Electoral Institute,
has declared Calderon the winner.
Next, the Federal Electoral Tribunal, known by its Spanish acronym
TRIFE, has until Sept. 6 to validate the election. If it doesn't
declare a winner, it must order a new election.
"The tribunal is basically the highest court in Mexico on
electoral affairs. They're the last word," explained Armand
Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mexico Project at the Center
For Strategic and International Studies, on the July 6 NewsHour.
The seven-member tribunal will hear all legal challenges to the
election, including those filed this week by Lopez Obrador demanding
a vote-by-vote recount of the election in all of Mexico's 300
electoral districts.
Analysts are comparing the Mexican election to the U.S. presidential
election of 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court halted a vote recount
in Florida. That decision led to Republican George W. Bush's victory
over Democrat Al Gore.
But some say the Mexican system is better prepared.
"You look at the Florida Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme
Court -- elections are not their specialty, and it took them time
to get up to speed," Ray Kennedy, an elections expert in
Mexico who trains electoral workers internationally for the United
Nations, told The Miami Herald.
"You don't have that here. You have a body that specializes in
one thing."
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Very different
visions for Mexico |
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 If
declared the winner, Calderon will face an uphill battle to control
the direction of his country. He has only one-third of the popular
vote and has a sharply divided Congress, The Washington Post reported.
The 43-year-old Calderon has promised to continue the policies
of outgoing President Vicente Fox, who is a member of his National
Action Party.
Calderon supports free trade -- without tariffs or barriers between
trading partners.
His support comes primarily from middle-class urbanites and business
classes in the northern part of Mexico.
 His
opponent Lopez Obrador, on the other hand, has the support of
poor rural Mexicans, primarily in the southern part of the country.
Lopez Obrador is former mayor of the country's largest city,
Mexico City, and campaigned against free trade, promising to create
programs to help the poor.
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A fledgling
democracy |
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Regardless of the ultimate outcome, many political analysts feel
this election is a step forward for Mexico, which, until 2000,
was ruled by the same party for 71 years.
"This election was a success because the level of debate
among Mexicans about which platform they preferred is a success.
I think it's been a success for the political country -- the political
culture of this country. I think it's been a success for the institutions,"
Peschard-Sverdrup said.
Others think success can only be determined when the electoral
process is complete and the institutions have been tested.
 "I
think it's too soon to tell. We need to see the Mexican people
come together. And a lot is going to depend on the electoral court
and its ability to establish an outcome that is not only formally
legal, but also seen as legitimate in the eyes of the losers,
as well as the winners," Jonathan Fox, professor of Latin
American and Latino studies at the University of California in
Santa Cruz, told the NewsHour on July 6.
--Compiled
by Annie Schleicher for NewsHour Extra
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