ELECTORAL TRIBUNAL REJECTS REQUESTS TO REVIEW BALLOTS FROM 2006 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.Nearly nine months after the 2006 presidential election, the country's electoral court (Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federacion, TEPJF) handed another defeat to center-left presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with a ruling that the ballots cast in the presidential race cannot be open to public scrutiny. The 2006 presidential election was the closest in modern history, with the official count giving Felipe Calderon Felipe Calderon is the name of:
In a decision handed down in late April, the TEPJF turned down the coalition's request in a unanimous decision A Unanimous Decision is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking in which all 3 judges agree on which fighter won the match. , saying that the ballots were not "public documents," nor are they available to the general public. The seven TEPJF judges cited statutes in Mexico's electoral code (Codigo Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos Electorales, COFIPE), which stipulate that only voting officials at each respective election district are entitled to view the ballots. In the event that a recount is ordered, TEPJF officials would also be entitled to review the ballots. Principle of confidentiality trumps transparency The TEPJF judges said a factor guiding their decision was the principle of confidentiality. Once a ballot is converted into a vote, it gains a confidential status, they noted. Still, the TEPJF's chief magistrate Chief Magistrate is a generic designation for a public official whose office -- individual or collegial -- is the highest in his or her class, in either of the fundamental meanings of Magistrate (which often overlapped in the Ancien régime): as a major political and administrative Flavio Galvan said the judges gave serious consideration to the right to information, particularly in light of the move to allow the public more access to public documents. In 2002, the Congress approved legislation allowing citizens access to archives that had been off limits (see SourceMex, 2002-05-08). Galvan said, however, that there are no "absolute rights" and that the justices had to weigh that right against the principle of confidentiality. Some political observers disagreed with these criteria. "This is a step backward in our country's effort to attain transparency in government," said political analyst Andreas Schedler of the Centro de Investigaciones y Docencia Economica (CIDE CIDE Centro de Investigación y Documentación Educativa CIDE Contribuição de Intervenção no Domínio Econômico (Spanish: Contribution for Intervening on Economic Dominance) CIDE Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica ). "In this particular case, where you had such a tight election, there would be ample reasons to allow civil society to review the ballots." Schedler urged the Mexican Congress to include a recount provision when they consider legislation on state reforms this year or next. "Other countries have this recount provision," said the analyst. As expected, the decision did not sit well with Lopez Obrador's party, the center-left Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD PRD progressive retinal degeneration. ). In addition to the PRD, the Coalicion por el Bien de Todos included the Partido Convergencia por la Democracia La Democracia means “the democracy” in Spanish. There are also places with that name: Guatemala
polycystic disease. ) and the Partido del Trabajo (PT). "The TEPJF, far from clearing up doubts about the July 2 fraud, added further uncertainty," said Horacio Duarte, the PRD's representative in the IFE. PRD president Leonel Cota Montano went one step further, accusing the electoral court of "sweeping the 2006 election under the rug." Calling the decision "an extremely serious matter" for Mexico, he said citizens would never know the extent of fraud that was committed in the 2006 presidential election. Cota said the coalition was especially interested in reviewing the results of presidential ballots in some central and northern states. "In Guanajuato, we have suspicions that the Partido Nueva Alianza (PANAL) took the votes that were going for the PRD in congressional elections while the PAN took the presidential votes," said Cota. The PRD president accused Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours José Eduardo Robinson Bours Castelo (b. December 17 1956 in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora) is a Mexican businessman and is currently serving as the Governor of Sonora under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI. He is well known for all the advances in the state of Sonora. of helping "promote irregularities," which in the end contributed to a strong showing for the PAN in that stat (Sources: Notimex, 04/25/07; El Financiero, Reforma, The Herald-Mexico City, 04/26/07; El Universal, La Jornada La Jornada is one of Mexico City's leading daily newspapers. It was established in 1984 by Carlos Payán Velver. The current editor (directora general) is Carmen Lira Saade. , Milenio Diario Milenio Diario is a major national newspaper in Mexico, owned by Grupo Multimedios. It is published in 11 cities across Mexico, including Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Pachuca, Puebla, Villahermosa, Tampico, Tepic, Torreón, Toluca, and Xalapa. , 04/26/07, 04/27/07; Diario Olmeca, 04/27/07) |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion