Range of IFE verdicts against the left

* IFE rejected the left's request to push forward an audit the presidential campaign. Instead it will be held at a much later point, and certainly after the inauguration.

* Against the protests of IFE councilor Alfredo Figueroa, IFE voted 8-1 to exonerate Peña Nieto and Televisa from any accusations of illegal or covert campaign in favor of the PRI candidate, despite the exposes of the newspaper The Guardian of a pact between the newscaster and PRI to actively promote his candidacy. No Televisa employee was asked to testify. Figueroa noted, "It is obvious that no investigation was done in order to get closer to the elements of this case."

*IFE fined the left's Movimiento Progresista 1.5 million pesos over an ad called "Thousands of proofs" deeming it injurious to PRI and Peña Nieto. Days earlier it had rejected any fine and allowed it in the name of free speech. Alfredo Figueroa, Lorenzo Córdova and Benito Nacif voted against; council president Leonardo Valdés and the remaining councilors voted in favor. Valdés has particularly the past year increasingly appeared unfriendly to the PRD, to put it mildly, which likely regrets its original backing of him to become IFE president.

Together, the incidents have led PRD leader Zambrano to suggest outright that IFE favors the PRI.

Source:
Inconforma a la izquierda decisión del IFE. La Jornada, Aug. 15, 2012
Zambrano: IFE favorece al PRI. El Universal, Aug. 18, 2012
Exculpa el IFE a Peña Nieto y Televisa por campaña encubierta. La Jornada, Aug. 17, 2012
El instituto multa con casi millón y medio al Movimiento Progresista.  La Jornada, Aug. 17, 2012

IFE's Lorenzo Córdova calls for calm on opinion polls

Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, one of the nine councilors of Mexico's federal electoral institute, called for political actors - candidates, public servants - to be "responsible" in their use of public opinion polls ahead of Mexico's 2012 election, and not "contaminate" the electoral enviroment.

I think that can safely be taken as a finger pointing at Felipe Calderón, who happened to display, proud as a rooster, a poll that showed PAN's candidate trailing by only a few percentage points. No other poll - none - has showed anything remotely close to these figures.

Córdova also drew attention to the "irresponsibility" of politicians pointing to dubious and made-to-fit polls, an increasing problem in Mexico. All parties should feel this criticism sting a bit.

(On another note: Lorenzo Córdova is a man to keep in mind for future higher offices. I have been reading much of his work recently, and most of it is very brilliant stuff. I don't think being an IFE councilor - as important and prestigious as that job is - will be the zenith of his career.)

14 months late, Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) complete

It's about damn time. At last, the Chamber of deputies came to an agreement to appoint, with the required 2/3 majority, the last three IFE councilors ahead of 2012. None voted against; a handful of PT legislators abstained.

They are:
* Sergio García Ramírez, former attorney general, and judge at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

* María Marván Laborde, Ph.D from New School, now with the federal IFAI (institute for access to information and data protection)

* Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, Ph.D, law expert and researcher at UNAM.

This is excellent new, met with near unison approval from the various legislative leaders, as well as IFE president Leonardo Valdés. It's embarrassing, though, that it took the Chamber so long to get to this, and only under intense pressure from the federal electoral tribunal (TEPJF).

Vicente Fox, a "pathological clown" - and a quote of the day

Former president Vicente Fox has been rambling on in the media the past days, shooting off in all directions. He's criticized the Federal Electoral Institute, and (there's much right in his criticism) for its arguably excessive regulation of primary debates, but as IFE pointedly shot back, Fox should truly keep his mouth shut when it comes to anything related to IFE - after all, his blatant intervention in the 2006 election was much of the cause for the 2007-8 electoral reform in the first place.

Then, he has the guts to sling dirt on Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, three-time presidential candidate and founder of the PRD, arguing that giving the Senate's Belisario Domínguez order to him would degrade its value.

I'm a longtime critic of Cárdenas for many reasons, but let us put things in perspective: This is a man who constantly fought for democracy, always firm (or rigid) in his convictions, and whose ardent opposition to the PRI dictatorship opened up political space for clowns like Fox to become a governor of Guanajuato, and then president, in the first place. To hear Fox, someone who blatantly sought to debase Mexico's institutions through launching the amazingly idiotic impeachment process against Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2005, with the admitted purpose of barring him from the 2006 presidential election, almost defies belief, hadn't it been for the fact that we are now well accustomed to Fox' many utterly stupid comments, which seems to multiply by each passing year since he left the presidency.

I find PRD president Jesús Zambrano's characterization of Vicente Fox as a "pathological clown" quite accurate.

PRI's Senator Francisco Labastida, the opponent of Fox and Cárdenas in the 2000 presidential election, and one of the absolutely more reasonable PRI legislators, said in a response to Fox's verbal diarrhea:

"Again he lost the golden opportunity to shut the hell up."

Quote of the day.

Mexico's electoral institute prohibits political debates among contenders

I am not a legal expert, but it seems to me that Mexico's Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) has truly gone overboard this time, far beyond its rights and duties: A couple of days ago, IFE decided to sanction the PRD and PAN for having held a debate among "pre-candidates," or among those vying to be their party's nominee for the governorship of Nayarit.

This in effect bans what are really primaries, and is an enormous extension of the IFE's reach.
The PT and Convergencia, to their discredit, had complained that a PAN and a PRD candidate, without officially having become their party's nominee, held a televised debate months ago, and IFE now struck it down as illegal.

Yes, holding a political debate is illegal until one is the party's nominee.

Waiting for a an AMLO-Ebrard televised showdown? A Peña Nieto-Beltrones debate over who has the best program? Forget it - IFE has banned it.

This is truly preposterous.

Ominous sign for 2012: Mexico's electoral institute feuds

More on the internal troubles of Mexico's Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE), from a La Jornada report:

Not only is IFE, responsible for arranging Mexico's federal elections, missing three councilors yet to be appointed by congress, but finds itself completely divided 3-3 in bitter internal feud. The main protagonists are IFE president  Leonardo Valdés vs. Marco Antonio Baños and  Francisco Guerrero, who now fight about virtually everything, in an increasingly bitter tone. The latter two are close to PRI and operate essentially as the party's agents, yet Valdés is also facing criticism from PRD, originally positive toward his election, and PAN, for his leadership style, and decisions taken.

A very, very ominous sign for 2012 that begs repeating.

The cost of Mexico's 2012 election: 16 billion pesos. Church weighs in.

Mexico's federal electoral institute (IFE) has requested almost 16 billion pesos for the 2012 presidential election. This whopping sim is particularly notable as the 2007-08 electoral reform had as one of its main goals to reduce the cost of elections, principally due to only allowing parties to contract tv/radio advertisements through slots allotted to them by IFE, rather than purchasing themselves at a massive cost.

Head of IFE Leonardo Valdés defended the cost - 30 percent higher than in 2006 - as a  product of IFE's new functions that include, among others, much more expanded media monitoring, but also due to increased insecurity as a product of the fight with and between drug gangs. He also insists  that the institute is ready for 2012, though public approval of - and faith in - IFE has been dropping notably in recent months.

Some of this may be attributed to the Catholic church, which demanded that the institute be a representative of citizens and not of parties, while it denounced the IFE's rising operating costs. The church also attacked the "restrictive laws" of 2007 that it claims restrict freedom of expression, even though it was not passed by IFE but by Congress and IFE merely has to follow the new legislation. It also conspicuously made no mention of the recent IFE/TEPJF verdict that the Archdiocese broke the law in its attack on the PRD.

One of church's points is well taken, though: It criticized the lack of autonomy of state electoral institutes and their ease of manipulation vis-a-vis state governors. This is truly an increasing problem that was noted by several of IFE's councilors I interviewed last summer.

IFE's president demands appointment of three missing councilors

OK, not missing as in lost in the wilderness, but for all practical effects, pretty close:

Quite amazingly, given that the 2012 race has all but started, and that IFE will now have considerably more tasks than in 2006, following the 2007-8 electoral reform: The Mexican Chamber of Deputies still has not appointed three new councilors missing on the IFE's general council, following the departure of three many, many months ago - I am not even sure of how long IFE has been operating with only 6 councilors. But what I do know is that this is technically unconstitutional, and that the Chamber of Deputies - and principally PRI, which demands to appoint two out the three - is not doing its job.

IFE president Leonardo Valdés again called on congress to do this as soon as possible, as time is running out - for la grande, the 2012 presidential one, but also 15(!) gubernatorial elections that year. Given the expansions of IFE's functions, they really need all hands on deck here.

Initiative by Benito Nacif of IFE to safeguard voters's party membership

Benito Nacif, a councilor of Mexico's Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE), proposed an initiative to further safeguard the privacy of those who are members of political parties.

Currently, apparently anyone can technically access a party's padrón or membership lists, with the names of the members, thus depriving them of their right to privacy and keeping their party affiliation secret.

I interviewed Benito Nacif for a paper I am working on, and he struck me as one of the absolute most reasonable of IFE's current councilors - as is the current proposal.

AMLO on new Morena tour. What will IFE do?

And AMLO will launch a new tour for Morena, where he said will promote his presidential proyect.

Given that this clearly breaks Mexican electoral law, what will the Mexican electoral institute (IFE) do? 

Or perhaps the question should rather be: When IFE deems AMLO to engage in campaigning outside of the allowed time frame for elections, how will AMLO respond? "They are all against us!"? This has the potential to blow up pretty soon. 

Yet another bad omen for 2012: IFE councilors attack own president

It may be exaggerated to call it a civil war, as IFE's Marco Antonio Baños and Francisco Guerrero make out a "dynamic duo" that for a long time has consistently defended the PRI rather than Mexican democracy as councilors of Mexico's federal electoral institute, but it certainly does not bode well for IFE's future stability that said councilors launch a full broadside against their own boss, IFE president Leonardo Valdés, in media, directly claiming that he really does not know about IFE´s internal work, being more busy with international conferences and backing a proposed political reform, rather than engaging himself in IFE´s preparations for 2012.

Whoever is right here, it´s a bad omen for 2012.

Another shot fired in IFE's internal war: Comptroller General's salary

Things are stormy in Mexico's electoral institute, Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE), these days. IFE is still three councilors short, given the Chamber of Deputies' failure to agree on three new replacements, and various reports have been flying around in misuse of funds, most recently when IFE allegedly paid more than five times the market value for a building.

The latter issue, and other possible irregularities was raised by IFE's comptroller general, Gregorio Guerrero Pozas, who has also earlier denounced IFE functionaries of an attempt in 2009 to raise their salaries.

It goes perhaps without saying that reations with IFE president  Leonardo Valdés have been less than harmonious. And now, another shot fired, yet this time against comptroller Guerrero: His very, very high salary. Indeed, as El Universal reports, he pulls home a hefty 200,985 pesos in monthly salary, or roughly $17,000 per month. Not only that: Guerrero's salary might be illegally high, as it even surpasses that of an IFE executive director.

I am not sure who is right or wrong here - whether Guerrero is on a misguided warpath against IFE, or whether Leonardo Valdés truly has been an incompetent president in administrative matters. Yet as Mexico approaches the 2012 federal election, and with crucial state elections barely two months away, I have a hard time seeing any positive fallout from IFE's internal war for Mexico's democracy.

IFE starts to register voters living "abroad." More balanced this time?

IFE, the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute responsible for arranging Mexico's federal elections,  now has started the process of registering voters "abroad," meaning in all essence the United States, for the 2012 contests. Mexican expats can access the site http://www.votoextranjero.mx/ for more information.

In this regard, I would here like to particularly recommend the chapter "Absentee Voting and Transnational Civic Engagement among Mexican Expatriates, by James McCann et al in the 2009 edited volume Consolidating Mexico's Democracy: The 2006 Presidential Campaign in Comparative Perspective by Jorge  Domínguez et al.

In essence, it describes how PRI-PAN-PRD support was quite even in the US, but that the (abysmally low number of) voters who actually took the trouble of voting in the US, did it overwhelmingly for PAN. They explain this as essentially due to the institutional hurdles to be overcome, far easier surmounted by more resource-rich and more highly educated panistas.

Let's hope IFE makes a serious effort to address these inequities in the expat voting process.

A ruling of consequences: Mexico Supreme Court rejects "intellectuals injunction"

The Mexican Supreme Court rejected, by a surprisingly lopsided 7-4 vote, the so-called "amparo de los intelectuales" or "the court injunction of the intellectuals."

In essence, a group of public intellectuals, including Jorge Castañeda, Héctor Aguilar Camín (click here for his perspective on the ruling), and others, had filed an injunction against the 2007-2008 Mexican electoral reform, which prohibits, among many other things, that private individuals and corporations contract political advertisement. Intended to counteract, among other, the "swift boat" style dirty campaigns of the controversial 2006 election, the group had nonetheless argued the reform violated free speech, as it doesn't allow citizens to contract political advertising.

As late as this Jan 31, the court had reached a 5-5 tie. Now, the injuncion was discarded, though the court didn't rule on the content of the reform or on the legislative process but rather on whether it was proper to file and accept an injunction against this constitutional reform.

This means that for the time being - until the next electoral reform - and quite likely for the 2012 presidential elections, the parties, through alloted time slots by the IFE federal electoral institute, will retain a monopoly on political advertising - and that IFE will also retain its drastically expanded role of also policing this type of advertisements.

Ignorance and Cowardice: Hugo Valdemar and the sorrow state of Mexican high clergy

Found guilty by the Federal Electoral Tribunal (IFE) in having broken Mexican law, Hugo Valdemar, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Mexico, said he would impugn IFE's resolution, yet in the process exposing himself again as an ignoramus and a coward.

* Ignorant, for demanding "complete freedom of expression," when the issue at stake is rather that Valdemar has repeatedly referred to the PRD as a "fascist" party and called on the faithful to vote against it.
* Cowardly, for on the one hand claiming freedom of expression, but in the next breath declare that IFE misread him and that he didn't really say the things IFE documented he had said.

What a pitifully sorrow  intellectual and moral state of the high clergy of the Archdiocese of Mexico - Hugo Valdemar, and his boss and protector of pederasts, Norberto Rivera.

If only there were a Samuel Ruiz or Raúl Vera to take the place of these reactionaries, who make pope Ratzinger look like a liberal.

Breakin' the law: Jalisco gov. Emilio González Márquez "illegal propaganda"

The general council of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) declared that Jalisco Governor Emilio González Márquez broke the country's electoral law by turning ads announcing his "state of the state" into personal political propaganda. González Márquez, infamous for a range of drunken appearances and showering public money on the most arch-conservative sectors of the Catholic church, is also on a quixotic quest to gain the presidential nomination of PAN.

Given the rules under which IFE operates, however, it cannot penalize the governor with a fine, as no legislation exists that stipulates the actual penalty for public servants breaking the law, but IFE did send the case over to the Auditoría Superior of Jalisco state to revise the case and possibly sanction the governor. Don't hold your breath that it will. 

Yet another IFE resolution revoked by TEPJF, then another

Mexico's highest electoral court, TEPJF, revoked an earlier resolution by the country's electoral institute (IFE) where the Partido del Trabajo (PT) was fined a million pesos for using the following words in a TV ad, while images of Enrique Peña, Carlos Salinas, Felipe Calderón and Elba Esther Gordillo were displayed: "The mafia of power that took over Mexico, responsible for the current national tragedy."
While IFE had found the ad "denigrated" the said public figures, TEPFJ wisely rejected this as being the party's opinion, and thus not denigrating. As has often been noted here: This is hardly the first time TEPJF have rejected IFE resolutions castigating non-PRI parties.

Yet of note: The TEPJF also ordered IFE to relaunch the investigation of a complaint by  PAN against Andrés Manuel López Obrador, where the party accused him of jumping the gun in terms of electioneering before the allowed time frame, after appearing in several TV and radio ads.

For 2011: Prriority for the PRD's deputies to "defend IFE's autonomy"

The PRD, in outlining its legislative priorities for 2011, put "defend IFE's autonomy" high on its list. The party is accusing the PRI of trying to grab control of the Federal Electoral Institute through the nominations to the vacant positions as IFE councilors: PRI is seeking to name two of the three councilors, leaving one for PAN and none for the PRD. This is a highly serious omen: Keep in mind that PAN and the PRI's steamrolling of earlier IFE appointments and leaving out the PRD was a key ingredient in the 2006 "perfect storm," where the party had less than full confidence in the autonomy of the IFE going into that year's presidential election for the simple reason that PAN and PRI had irresponsibly left the PRD out of the negotiations.

Should PRI, through temporary legislative alliances, be left with two more IFE councilors... expect 2006 to be repeated as farce in 2012.

Yet another IFE ruling in Peña Nieto's favor to be rejected by TEPJF

As noted earlier, I've grown increasingly wary of the IFE's decisions the past year or so as far too many have appeared to favor PRI and Mexico State Governor Enrique Peña Nieto, only to be rejected by Mexico´s highest electoral court, the TEPJF.

Yet another case in point: Earlier this month, the IFE notoriously deemed an ad by the PRD, where the party argued Peña Nieto was "fearful" of a political alliances, to be denigrating of his image (!). The PRD protested, and continued showing the ad, while it bleeped out the offensive phrase.
Yet what happened? The TEPJF on Dec. 24 (how i s that for work ethic!) ruled against the IFE, and ordered the ad to be allowed to air. The decision was not based on the merits of IFE´s argument but addressed a technical issue, but the point remains: The IFE to me has appeared far to trigger happy in censuring ads or "spots" against PRI and Peña Nieto, and has again been admonished by the TEPJF for doing so.

The PRD´s representative to IFE, Rafael Hernández, has become increasingly vocal in expressing frustration against the and its alleged breach of the "principle of neutrality.

On Dec. 13, IFE also rejected a complaint against Enrique Peña Nieto and then-Interior Minister Fernando Gómez-Mont for having made a pact where PAN agreed not to ally with PRD in gubernatorial elections, ostensibly in return for PRI backing of the federal budget. IFE declared ifself incompetente or not having jurisdiction to deal with the complaint filed by PRD, PT and Convergencia. The parties then announced they will also take this case to the TEPJF. Should the TEPJF again rule against the IFE... I believe the left may be well justified in smelling a rat.

There's something rotten in IFE

While I don´t follow Mexico's Federal electoral institute (IFE) and its Electoral tribunal (TEPJF) as closely as I should, there seems to me to be quite a bit of anecdotal evidence for two trends:

1) IFE has tended to absolve Governor of Mexico State Enrique Peña Nieto for most every complaint against him, while ordering his opponents to stop many of their ads against him
2) The Electoral tribunal has castigated IFE for many of these decisions.

The IFE operates according to guidelines that it cannot be held responsible for, of course - they were drawn up by congress. While the most recent 2007-8 electoral reform had many positive aspects to it, it is now apparent it also contained quite a few flaws, most apparently the inability - and for now I emphasize inability over unwillingness - of IFE to stop the incessant official propaganda and publicity in Mexico State in favor of its governor.

(By the way, the PRI-led state congress just approved in committee another hike, bringing the sum up, according to PRD, to 1.6 billion pesos)

However, IFE has been quite capable of interpreting its guidelines to ban ads from the PRD or other opposition parties against Peña Nieto. This has happened on a range of occasions, including just a few days ago, when IFE ordered the PRD to take out a line from a political ad that was deemed "denigrating" toward Peña Nieto´s image. The words in question? "Peña Nieto fears the political alliances" [of PAN and PRD].

Really? This line is "denigrating" the governor of Mexico State? I have a hunch that last word is not said in this case. Why? Because the TEPJF unanimously again ordered IFE to reopen another complaint from the PAN against Peña Nieto's government propaganda in relation with his fifth informe, publicity also transmitted in Guerrero and Baja California Sur (upcoming elections), which the IFE rejected. to rule on. It's just one more case of TEPJF ordering IFE to revisit an early decision - hardly dramatic in itself - but it just happens to be on Peña Nieto.

Something is happening here but you don't know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones.