Reply #12: Scholars: Ballot access is a must -Mexico [View All]

[Melissa G]

Scholars: Ballot access is a must

By Irma Sandoval and John M. Ackerman
El Universal
Martes 26 de septiembre de 2006

Mexico now has two presidents-elect. One officially recognized by the electoral authorities — Felipe Calderón — and the other proclaimed the “legitimate president” by millions of followers — Andrés Manuel López Obrador. There is one way to settle this crisis. As in the aftermath of Bush vs. Gore in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, a group of Mexico’s newspapers should be allowed to conduct a canvass of the ballots.
Unfortunately, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), which organizes the presidential elections, has announced that it will not open the ballots to public scrutiny.

The institute appears bent on repeating the government’s performance after the 1988 presidential election, in which the computers “malfunctioned.” It is widely believed that massive fraud allowed Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), to mysteriously overcome the early lead of the leftist candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. To cover its tracks, the government then quickly burned the evidence.

The Freedom of Information Act, enacted in 2002, is one of the best in the world. It gives full priority to transparency, stating that everything should be made public except when disclosure might harm economic stability or national security. But even this “reserved” information must be made available after 12 years have passed.

http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=34923&tabla=articulos