With the creation of the IFE in 1990 and after the INE in 2014, the electoral processes were citizenized. These became much more transparent, with clear rules and, most importantly, with an autonomous institute. State elections are over. These remarkable advances over decades led to an electoral democracy. López Obrador’s recent bill seeks to strip citizens of these achievements and return control of the elections to the party in power. This initiative should be emphatically rejected.
It is enough to remember the electoral processes of before 1990, to understand the great reversal that the president intends. To do this, a personal anecdote serves to illustrate the case: the midterm election of 1985. The body that organized and dealt with all electoral matters was the Federal Electoral Commission (CFE), which was chaired by the Secretary of the Interior in turn, Manuel Bartlett. Since the PRI and the government were one, the PRI used the bureaucracy for its electoral purposes. Prior to the election, many public servants received a “kind” invitation to act as “representatives of the official candidate” in a certain randomly selected polling place. It didn’t matter if we were affiliated with the PRI. There was no choice but to follow our superior’s instructions.
Early, before the opening of the voting booth, a “party trainer” told us that our main function was to try to identify the direction of the voters’ vote in order to keep statistics. This was done by trying to discreetly and attentively observe the position in which the person marked the ballot with an X, that is, if his hand was tilted towards, for example, upper right (I do not remember the position) where the PRI logo.
Any doubt about the electoral procedure that arose during the day, the PRI representative resolved it. Every two hours a PRI car appeared and one of the crew spoke with that party representative. “Hey, how are we doing?” and he took note of what was reported. In the afternoon, a minibus suddenly appeared from which about twenty people with military appearance got out and they distributed the voting card to them. They lined up and voted! The classic carousel tactic. It was simulated putting indelible ink on their finger. From there, they were transferred to another box.
The next day, among friends, we exchanged experiences. In a polling place where the incipient opposition predominated, there were tricks in the count and the numbers on the record were altered, putting a 1 before or transforming the 3 into 8. As the ballot boxes were not transparent, other colleagues testified that from the beginning they were somewhat heavy , that is, pregnant with ballots. Faced with so many irregularities, there was no one to turn to report them. To the CFE dominated by the Secretary of the Interior?
Crazy mouse, carousel, altered records, pregnant ballot boxes, disdain for democracy… no, Mr. President, a large majority of Mexicans do not want to return to that political culture that reeks rancidly of putrefaction.
Twitter: @frubli
Economist
IMEF Magazine
Economist graduated from ITAM. He has a Master’s degree and doctoral studies in monetary theory and policy, and international finance and trade. Columnist for The Economist. He has been an advisor to the Board of Governors of Banxico, Director of Institutional Liaison, Director of External Relations and Coordinator of the Governor’s Office, Manager of External Relations, Manager of Macrofinancial Analysis, Deputy Manager of Macroeconomic Analysis, Deputy Manager of International Economy and Analyst .