AMLO's red herring

AMLO proclaims that in 2012, his electoral movement will have more people covering ballot boxes than ever before, in order to avoid a fraud and an outcome as in 2006, "when they falsified the things."

I find this quite a red herring, for several reasons., Most obvious, five and a half years later, there is NO EVIDENCE AT ALL of a widespread and systematic fraud at the ballot boxes in 2006. But there's more:

1) It assumes that as long as AMLO's coalition doesn't have any representative at the ballot box, this will automatically lead to a fraud, meaning, not only would all the other party representatives be in on the fraud, but also the local electoral representatives responsible for the ballot station and the citizen representatives chosen by double-blind ballot to oversee the election. This is an enormous leap of (lack of) faith, especially as there is no evidence that this really has happened on anything close to a wide and systematic scale.

2) In 2006, AMLO insisted on using his "Citizen Networks" as ballot box observers, in many places even displacing the PRD, yet on election day many didn't show up. If there truly was fraud due to a lack of AMLO representatives, he is to blame himself for this. When will we hear any self criticism for this?

3) If there truly was fraud in 2006 at the ballot boxes - that e.g. the local representatives colluded with the other parties to remove ballots from the boxes, etc - how could this ever be proven? That is, if this is how the supposed fraud of 2006 was carried out, no recount would ever make the slightest difference.

For sure: It is very important that AMLO's coalition does manage to have representatives, as they are allowed to by law, at every station. But in order to avoid the errors of 2006 in 2012, more than a bit of self criticism is here in order.

Last-minute entrant for Dick-of-the-Year award: Extorting the poor

Yet another contestant: Juan Ignacio Yáñez Yaber, a promoter for the anti-poverty program Oportunidades in Mexico City. In the Ixtapalapa delegation, Yáñez was just caught on tape, in a sting operation, demanding 5,000 pesos as a bribe to sign up eligible participants for the program.

Trafficking in poverty to abuse and extort people of few resources in order to have them added to a program they are entitled to? It's a strong last-minute contestant for Dick-of-the-Year award.

(National Coordinator Salvador Escobedo of Oportunidades promises zero tolerance for such criminal acts, and  there is, in a sense, a positive spin to it - it should not surprise that functionaries try to seek bribes; what is notable is that in this case, they actually got caught for it).