The morning after: Mexican elections aftermath
Yes, this is one of those postings I’d like to make in Spanish. However, a long time ago I decided my blog should be in English, as many of the people I write it for don’t speak Spanish, so don’t bug me with that ;-) Besides, I do think it is very important not to leave this information inside the country. International pressure has proven fundamental to stop some of our government’s flaws. So… What happened with our elections? Nothing yet. As many expected, and as we all hoped it would not happen, the results are too close to call a winner. Ugly and tiring trend, just as it happened in the USA six years ago, and more recently in Germany, in Perú (twice in the same elections!)… As it stands now, it seems the candidate I have been favoring and promoting for quite a long time will not make it. The first results from the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) show a ~1% advantage for the right-wing PAN candidate. That’s a sad result for me and for those that think like me, yes… But what is even sadder is that there is evidence pointing out it might not be true after all. It is sad that we might end up winning. Or losing, for that matter. Why? Because it will show that we are not over the fraudulent electoral system that made my country famous for decades. As a side comment: Blogs suck for interactivity. Either we read replies on the different planets that syndicate us (and come up with unfollowable threads) or we leave comments on people’s blogs (and risk never being read, and never read an answer)… Damog [update No, it was not Damog, it was somebody else cowardly using his name :-/ ] left me a reply to my previous post that I think I should address: Regarding the FeCal website I launched with some friends a couple of weeks ago: A site meant to point out the lies on the campaign of the right wing candidate, Felipe Calderón. And, yes, the site is meant (now) to attack him. Dirty, yes. But definitively, it was the only way to answer, and it was the only way not to let his lies dig further into the collective mind of the people. And to a very good exent, we (not only FeCal, but the whole López Obrador camp) managed to turn the trend, pointing out Calderón’s uncleanness and disrespect for the people and the law. And even if in th beginning we thought of making a site that would just make fun of the Feliz-pillo, we ended up writing or refering to articles we think are relevant. And after the elections are really over (the IFE will start doing the exhaustive official vote count only tomorrow, and it can take even until next Sunday), we will see how to transform this site (or at least this group of people, we will see what happens next) into an observatory, following the politicians’ decisions and trying to avoid they are as obvious as they have always been. Anyway, back on track: Hundreds of complaints have been reported already. A site that keeps track of many of them is El sendero del Peje al 2006 - There are many criticisms we can make to this site, and up to now I have avoided linking to it too much… But their work is very important today. There are many photos of the vote booths’ sheets of results, compared with what is registered in the IFE’s preliminary results program, and they show slight differences - Strangely, in the 1% margin. Strangely, small enough so most people will not complain. Strangely, just the exact amount needed to give the elections to the right-wing PAN party. From the first minutes after the results were announced, López Obrador told the media that there are around 3 million missing votes. Today, the IFE president (and a polemic figure himself, obviously) Luis Carlos Ugalde admitted those 3 million votes exist, but their data shows irregularities. Lets see what happens. Lets hope the irregularities do not mean the results will be modified. There are also reports about the data reported by the preliminary results being too perfect, following a linear trend that would be impossible to achieve in a real vote count. The results of both candidates have a constant distance, going up or down together, depending only on the third candidate (a distant third) going slightly up or down. There are also reports of voting booths that were already captured and disappeared from the system, to reappear some time later - with very slight differences. So… It is too early to call this a fraud. Yes, many of those things might happen because of real corrections, capture errors or such. I want not to call fraud. I want to trust the authorities no matter what they decide. They are just making it harder for me -and for a hundred million Mexicans- to do so. Lets see what comes in the next days.
Comments
Eduardo Ruiz Duarte (beck) 2006-07-06 14:30:22
Re: The morning after: Mexican elections aftermath
Yeah, well , there are a lot of interests. good post i made a post in my website related to some topics that we need to know about Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, maybe can be useful for you and your Fecal Website
http://b3ck.blogspot.com
(beck)
Kwame Bahena 2006-07-31 13:57:22
Re: The morning after: Mexican elections aftermath
Chale mi estimado Gunnar. No crei que fueras de izquierda, pero bueno, nadie es perfecto :-P
pasalavoz 2006-07-04 19:10:15
Re: The morning after: Mexican elections aftermath
FRAUDE: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/360037.html