Wednesday, October 20, 2010

PRD takes Ley Peña to the Supreme Court.

The PRD yesterday presented their official case of complaint to the Mexican Supreme Court regarding the presumed unconstitutionality of "Ley Peña" or Enrique Peña Nieto's law, the hastily passed amendment to Mexico State's electoral law that directly seek to sabotage a broad multi-party alliance to compete against the PRI in next year's gubernatorial election. Most famously, the legislation prohibits parties from running a common candidate while maintaining separate legislative lists, and drastically reduces party funds and representation at the state electoral institute for electoral alliances.

PT and Convergencia also signed on to the complaint, though this should not be interpreted as if the parties had a change of heart regarding their opposition to joining an alliance that also includes the PAN. Rather, they are upset with the clauses where the parties, even if they end up only allying with with each other and the PRD, will equally lose funds as the coalition will "count as one" rather than assigning funds, media slots, etc to each individual party.

I am not sure how far they will come with this. The manner in which Peña Nieto rammed through the anti-alliance legislation was highly disrespectful of the democratic process and filled with irregularities. It exposed the Mexico State governor as an opportunistic Machiavellian who will do everything he can to have PRI successor elected to replace him, even if it means undermining democratic institutions and poisoning the political climate by riding roughshod over the opposition. Every step of the process was filled with irregularities, though whether they will "add up," of sorts, in order for the Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional, is a different matter. The fact that PAN didn't join them in doing so - at least not yet - may be a sign the PAN knows the case is far from waterproof legally speaking.

Regardless: Should the Supreme Court find the "Ley Peña" unconstitutional, and in time for it to affect the 2011 gubernatorial election, it will be a big blow against Peña Nieto.

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