Tuesday, July 19, 2011

An important and overlooked statistic: PRI governs less people today than 2006

Milenio puts the spotlight on a very important electoral statistic:

While PRI today governs 19 of Mexico's 32 states, which is three more than at the start of Calderón's sexenio, it actually governs four million less citizens. The steamroller wins on July 3 nothwithstanding: All of the states were already governed by PRI.

While PRI took Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Yucatán, Nayarit and Tlaxcala from PAN, and Zacatecas from PRD, it lost the very important states of Sonora (due to the ABC nursery scandal), and Sinaloa, Oaxaca, and Puebla - states it had never lost before, in 81 years, thanks to the PRD-PAN alliances.

All eyes are now on Michoacán, where voter preferences seem to be split almost exactly in thirds for PAN, PRD, and PRI.

Luis Armando Reynoso Femat kicked out of PAN - again.

Former Aguascalientes Governor Luis Armando Reynoso Femat was just kicked out of the PAN, for having sabotaged the PAN candidate in favor of the PRI's gubernatorial candidate Carlos Lozano de la Torre. in last year's election.

This is the second attempt: An earlier attempt was rejected just a few weeks ago by Mexico's electoral tribunal TEPJF for procedural errors.

Aguascalientes was notably one of the PAN states that shifted to PRI last year, apparently much thanks to Reynoso Femat.

Much bitterness here: Even though the local PAN leader, Jorge López Martín, acknowledged that Reynoso Femat can still appeal to the Tribunal, he said they will expel him from the party "as many times as necessary."

Femicides in Sinaloa

Credit to Governor Mario López Valdez ("Malova") of Sinaloa for taking the issue of femicides seriously and not brushing it under the carpet, as has largely done e.g. Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico State:

Malova considered the rise in femicides in Sinaloa "alarming," and called for a special investigation by his justice department to analyze the so far 56 reported cases of femicides this year, where the women have been targeted principally for being women. Last year saw 111 cases in the state.

Gordillo's PANAL party under investigation by IFE

Mexico's federal electoral institute is carrying an investigation of Partido Nueva Alianza (PANAL), the teachers union-based party controlled completely by  Elba Esther Gordillo, due to "unusual movements" in its bank account. 

PANAL's new president Luis Castro Obregón seems to fit the party like hand in glove.  He denied that the audit has anything to do with recent hurling of accusations of corruption between Gordillo and Miguel Angel Yunes, though refused to offer any more comments on the matter. 

Then, asked if he knew the name of Ricardo Viso Veligson, a man who has endorsed 18 cheques to the party for over 7 million pesos,  he simply refused to confirm or deny anything.

At least the former party president Jorge Kahwagi Macari - he of the 5,500-square meter house, a mini-horse collection,  and a 10-million dollar yacht  - was somewhat entertaining in his eccentricity, by way of comparison. 

Elba Esther Gordillo's effect on 2006 a myth?

A very interesting article in today's El Universal, by CIDE researcher and political scientist José Antonio Crespo.

In a nutshell: While Elba Esther Gordillo certainly made a pact with Calderón in 2006, in an unseemly votes-for-political positions, the value of her votes are vastly exaggerated.

Why? While it is well known that her party PANAL received far more votes for its list of national deputies than for its presidential candidate - herein was the very bargain, where the SNTE-organized teachers and their families would vote for Calderón for president and their own party for lawmakers - yet a a forthcoming study by Javier Aparacio, one of CIDE's very sharpest minds, now reveals that of the SNTE/PANAL teachers, only 22 percent actually followed the order to so, while 27 percent voted for AMLO.

What does this mean? That  Calderón paid a very heavy price for very little, and that Gordillo's bargaining power with regards to her PANAL party may be a castle made of sand: She does not deliver.

Party leaders, take note.