La Jornada reports on the very poor attendance rate of particularly PRI, PAN, and PANAL deputies in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. None beats Jorge Kahwagi Macari: The boxer-media celebrity-cum politician, who is also the nominal head of Elba Esther Gordillo's Partido Nueva Alianza (PANAL), a party based on her iron-fisted control of the SNTE teachers union, in the current congressional period has attended 1 - one - out of 26 session! At the single session he did attend, he merely registered in the electronic registry and then took off. All the while, Kahwagi has continued to draw his legislator's salary and the many perks that come with being a national deputy. To add, in the previous session, from February to March, he also only showed up to register electronically, and then skipped the 30(!) other sessions held.
With such behavior, is it any wonder that Mexico's national legislators are held in low esteem?
Definitely not uncommon behavior, although he has proposed 46 bills by my count, which is fairly high compared to the average number of bills most Mexican diputados present (in the 2000-09 period, the mean is about 2-3 bills). Now, there is no telling he actually spent anytime working on those bills, and may have just attached him name to them. But, he can claim credit for doing something.
ReplyDeleteA very fair point, though to draw an analogy to the classroom: handing in good papers is not enough; participation is also required! Also on top of my head I am pretty certain such non-attendance also would violate the Chamber's own rules.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note: I've been waiting to read your "The legislative consequences of Mexico’s mixed-member electoral system" - will it be available electronically soon?
He's a crap boxer too, despite the record:
ReplyDeletehttp://boxrec.com/media/index.php?title=Fight:706030
Also, boxrec, which isn't the most reliable source, says he lives in California, which if true may explain the lack of attendance.
The article is available electronically through ScienceDirect.com under the Electoral Studies, Articles in Press listing. However, I know my university doesn't subscribe to this, so I'm just going to email you a copy at the address posted on this site.
ReplyDeleteYou are right though, I think his number of absences does violate the rules, but there are so many rules in the Chamber of Deputies that are violated on a regular basis. And to build on your analogy, I would bet he has been handing in plagiarized papers.