Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Quick links to recent Mexican presidential campaign news

Well, there's not much since campaigning officially ends tonight. The vote is Sunday. Did you know that alcohol is not sold on election day in Mexico? Interesting, huh?

Now that Mexico's out of the world cup, my Google "Mexico" newsfeed has regular news again, though I can't say I'm happy about it.

Early in the day, Reuters and Bloomberg were pointing out that Mexican stocks opened low, but by tonight, both were commenting on the overall rise in stocks today.

La Jornada dedicated three stories to a claim by a Mexican journalist that the PAN has used voter registration information target their campaign:

El martes pasado, la periodista Carmen Aristegui denunció que el PAN realizó -con base en el padrón- su propio mapa de georreferencia para identificar a ciudadanos por nombre, apellido, dirección y hasta preferencia electoral, con el fin de utilizarlo en su campaña. Tal operación se pudo descubrir al ingresar a la página de Internet de las Redes por México, de Calderón, con el usuario hildebrando 117 y la contraseña ''captura''. De acuerdo con la legislación electoral, los partidos sólo pueden utilizar el padrón para revisarlo. Cualquier otro uso constituye un delito.

The PAN's response was to claim that it was a trick by the PRD to make the PAN look bad:

''No caeremos en las provocaciones del Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD). Con mentiras no ganarán la Presidencia de la República'', aseguró la dirigencia nacional que preside Manuel Espino, cuando se le solicitó una entrevista sobre el eventual uso ilegal del padrón. Inclusive anunció que el tema no formará parte de la agenda político-electoral y de paso advirtió a los periodistas que "no esperen ningún comentario sobre las empresas de Diego Zavala''. [both quotes from the first article above]

The IFE has said it would investigate and that only 192 people have legal access to the voter rolls.

The leftist Mexico City daily is continuing to fan the flames of claims that social spending funds are being used for electoral purposes. This time, they claim to have thier own evidence pointing to PAN mischief. La Jornada is also continuing to criticize perceived inaction by Ugalde (the head of the electoral institute) to stop the CCE spots.

And, last but not least, just when we thought the teachers' strike in Oaxaca was cooling off, things turn for the worse. (see also)



Of course, if you read the other Mexican dailies, you're likely to get rosier, or at least less biased, news about the national Mexican futbol team or the closing rallies of the campaigns.

posted by Michelle @ 9:30 PM,

3 Comments:

At 6/28/2006 11:32 PM,  Anonymous said...

As unfortunate as it was in the futbol world, Mexico's loss to Argentina is probably good for AMLO. Gave people some time to return to reality and not be filled with any sort of pan-mexico feelings of unity (utilizing both the english and spanish meanings for pan and PAN but not pan.) It does seem like AMLO is going to take it. I think the PAN internal polls are not looking that great. Let us hope the margin is wide enough whoever wins to negate the chances of the streets filling with people in protest. back to writing myself....

 

At 6/29/2006 12:04 AM,  Michelle said...

Good points. Yes...back to writing.

 

At 6/29/2006 2:40 PM,  MSS said...

Are there any Latin American countries without a ley seca on election day?

I know Colombia has it, and I was under the impression it was typical.

It, along with various bans on election-day travel, has the side effect of being of great assistance to the caciques who supply the alochol on election day as a condition of getting on the bus to the polling station!

 

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