AMLO disqualifies new head of Mexico's Electoral Tribunal

Mexico's federal electoral tribunal, TEPJF, may have a new president in Alejandro Luna Ramos, but Andrés Manuel López Obrador already has disqualified him as belonging to the "power mafia," and that he will thus not serve to guarantee impartiality in the 2012 elections.

Disqualifying the Electoral Tribunal even before the 2012 contest has officially begun certainly is not a promising sign.

TEPJF president Luna Ramos is the only remaining judge on the tribunal from the 2006 presidential election, which AMLO continues to claim, with no evidence, was fraudulent. TEPJF voted unanimously to declare Felipe Calderón the winner in 2006, though it did acknowledge many irregularities.

A recent article in Proceso by Álvaro Delgado, which is highly critical of Luna Ramos, is also worth a read, even if a tad tendentious.

New surprise head of Mexico's Electoral Tribunal: Alejandro Luna Ramos

Alejandro Luna Ramos was elected, by oral vote by his fellow peers, as the new head of Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal, Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación (TEPJF), by 5 out of 7 magistrates (His sister, Margarita Beatriz Luna Ramos, is a Supreme Court judge).

Outgoing TEPJF president María del Carmen Alanís, failed to achieve her reelection. Not only that; in a quite shocker vote, her reelection was backed by only one vote: her own. She has been considered by many to be a tad too friendly to the PRI. Relations have been at times quite acrimonious between Alanís and the other TEPJF members. As far as 2012 goes, a broader consensus for the new head of Mexico's highest electoral court can only be a positive thing.