Graphic displaying the preliminary results of the presidential election, the final results of the congressional elections in each house of Congress, and the percent of the population governed by each political party at the state level.
Mexico's president sharply criticized President Bush's signing Thursday of a bill to build 700 miles of additional fencing on its southern border, calling the move an 'embarrassment.' Bush signed the bill, approved by the Senate last month, despite pleas from the Mexican government for a veto.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper praised his Mexican counterpart on Thursday as President-elect Felipe Calderón traveled to Ottawa as part of a two-day visit to the Great White North. "(Calderón) is a principled man with a political and economic vision for Mexico that is grounded in realism," Harper said during a news conference before the two North American leaders began a working lunch. The trip to Canada was Calderón´s first outside Latin America as president-elect.
Teachers in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca voted Thursday to end a five-month-old strike, allowing 1.3 million children to return to classes and potentially taking the sting out of anti-government protests besieging this historic city.
Three Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) governors on Tuesday made clear their intention to work with President-elect Felipe Calderón, despite the party leadership’s insistence in not recognizing the successor to Vicente Fox. The governors acknowledged "broad ideological differences," but insisted that the institutional relationship between state and federal governments required their participation.
Mexico has extradited a record 50 fugitives to the United States this year, including several alleged drug traffickers, murders and rapists, U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza announced Tuesday. Garza said the extraditions showed that Mexico is no longer a haven for U.S. criminals.
Some striking teachers have returned to their classrooms in Oaxaca state after a walkout linked to lengthy protests that have scared tourists away from this historic southern city. An official with one of the teachers' unions said Tuesday that about 4,000 of Oaxaca state's 14,000 schools have reopened since the strike began five months ago.
Union delegates representing 70,000 workers on Sunday decided to throw out a vote held the night before showing a majority of teachers wished to begin the school year, which has been on hold since the protests began. Teachers will hold a new vote this week and announce the results October 26, officials said after the all-night meeting in Oaxaca City.
Striking teachers in the southern state of Oaxaca on Thursday said they plan to return to their classrooms by month’s end and sought to distance themselves from vigilantism on the part of some of their allies in the effort to force out the state’s governor.
Calderón’s economic adviser Agustin Carstens said Thursday that the incoming administration will aim at both simplifying tax payments and reducing income taxes. Carstens emphasized the problems of fiscal exemptions and special regimes in Mexico, which amount more than 5.6% of Mexico’s GDP on a yearly basis.
White House spokesman Tony Snow indicated that Calderón is expected to meet with President Bush on November 9. A variety of global, regional, and bilateral issues will be discussed including competitiveness, free trade, and security.
By a 74-31 vote Mexico's Senate ruled Thursday there was no reason to oust Oaxaca's embattled state governor, eliminating the last formal legal recourse for thousands of protesters who for months have demanded the resignation of Government Officials in Oaxaca. Officials have been essentially chased out of the capital city for the past five months by a coalition of leftists and striking teachers who claim the governor used fraud to win his 2004 election.
During his campaign, López Obrador indicated that Rogelio Ramírez de la O would be his finance minister if he were to win the presidency. Ramirez said Tuesday that Carstens is the best name among the ones mentioned to lead Calderon’s economic team. Carstens, who has resigned from his post as deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, is regarded as almost certain to be appointed finance minister when Calderón takes power on December 1.
Voters in Mexico’s oil-rich state of Tabasco offered a stinging rebuke on Sunday to Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Residents of Tabasco went to the polls to vote for governor, but the election was as much a referendum on López Obrador's refusal to accept defeat on July 2 and his calls for a parallel government in exile. Official Results
The proposed wall, which is fiercely opposed by most people here, has become Topic A in Mexican politics. Over the last few days, with a delegation of about 50 L.A. writers and artists in town as guests of this capital's sixth annual bibliophiles festival, the wall has become an issue of urgent cultural import too.
Mexico's president-elect laid out a proposal for reform in Mexico in the coming years, pledging to tackle poverty, create jobs and promote equality. In a speech before politicians and businessmen, President-elect Felipe Calderon stressed the need to join the club of the world's fastest-growing economies. He said his plan (which will be open for public consultation starting Thursday) will provide the long-term roadmap Mexico has lacked in the past.
A spokeswoman for leftist legislators from Mexico City said Wednesday they would recognize conservative Felipe Calderón as president-elect, despite orders to shun him as part of protests over the July 2 election that their party claims was fraudulent.
Nancy Cárdenas said she was making the statement on behalf of the dominant 34-member delegation of the Democratic Revolution Party in the legislature for the capital city -- a stronghold of party ex-presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Protest leaders seeking to topple a state governor have tentatively agreed to tear down some of their barricades in the tourist city of Oaxaca, easing fears of violence before a new Mexican president takes power. After thousands of activists marched for days to Mexico City, the government and leaders said they made a deal late on Monday that could see protesters cede control of most of downtown Oaxaca to local police under federal supervision.
As he picks members of his team, President-elect Felipe Calderón is placing a high value on their political experience and savvy, according to a recent interview with El Universal. "I won’t use talent hunters," Calderón said from his transition headquarters in the leafy capital neighborhood of Del Valle, referring to the tactic employed by President Vicente Fox six years ago as he put together his Cabinet. "I feel that the task of governing is different from administering a company."
The main social problem that the President-elect must face is drug trafficking; even above the political ones. Jorge Chabat indicates that the current administration was not able to contain the confrontation among cartels and the consequent violence in Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, Michoacán and Acapulco.
The situation in Oaxaca represents one of the major defeats of politics in recent decades. Everybody has made a mistake: the president and his advisers, the governor, the political parties and even the congress. What is more important is that besides those mistakes many structural problems exist, which have passed unnoticed because of the disconcerting actions of violence.
The defeat of Raúl Ojeda in Tabasco has been considered by many as the Waterloo of López Obrador. However, they often forget to analyze that local factors impinged more upon Ojeda than national factors. Among those factors are the fact that PRI had a better candidate and the way in which an internally divided PRD started the electoral race.
The design of public policies in Mexico during the XX century was determined by two perspectives: on the one hand, between 1930 and 1980, the welfare state prevailed as the main thesis for development; on the other, beginning in the 1980s, a new model attempted to contain the crisis and overcome its consequences. However, the latter model has not been capable of lifting people up from poverty and marginalization.
Mexico has consolidated its diversity in a democratic framework at the national level. The different political forces fight for power with the limitations that the Constitution imposes. The President must negotiate with the Congress. The political parties exercise their powers and vetoes. Yet, at the local level, there are regimes far away from practicing the most elemental democratic principles.
Oaxaca is a conflict with a very difficult way out. On the one hand, the Senate supported PRI Governor Ulises Ruiz. On the other, the Fox administration does not want to be remembered as a repressor government and defends its inaction emphasizing the sovereignty of Oaxaca. This passivity will be a legacy that might complicate Calderón’s agenda.
On the one hand, for Calderon, the integration of his Cabinet will be the first step towards transcending the electoral struggle and giving his administration a sense of seriousness and efficacy. On the other, López Obrador must consolidate his project within a leftist opposition which is not entirely represented by him.
The electoral frauds that characterized the political system of the hegemonic party ceased to exist years ago. The advances in this area are undeniable. Yet, there is a need to correct other problems such as the inequity created by lack of accountability and transparency as well as in the integration of electoral authorities.
Notwithstanding the fact that the essence of our problems is political and institutional, a better economic performance might create conditions for a more relaxed atmosphere in the political arena. It is time to commit to a strategy of development capable of fostering economic development and overcoming the hindrances thereof.
Felipe Calderón must choose a group of legal amendments that he can effectively have passed in Congress. If he is able to achieve this, Calderón will send a very important message to the Mexican society: that unlike Fox, he is capable of negotiating with legislators and creating consensus.
The impact of Sunday's election will be felt well beyond Tabasco. The likely PRD loss will be seen as the last nail in López Obrador's political coffin. Not only would such a defeat on his home turf be a political humiliation for him, but gaining control of the state government could have provided him with a lucrative source of funds for his promised campaign of “civil resistance” against Calderón's victory. He may well have to find a chemist, or alchemist, of his own if he is ever to revive his sagging political fortunes.
Notwithstanding his intense activity, the President-Elect has not turned into the main focus of the Mexican political agenda. The conflict in Oaxaca, the violence amongst the drug cartels, and the presence of López Obrador in Tabasco’s electoral process are receiving more attention than the present presidential transition.
I always thought that once the political alternation had reached the federal level, the next step would be a new normative and institutional design to allow the states become stronger. Nonetheless, the reform of the Mexican institutions did not occur during the so-called “government of the change.” Furthermore, there are no signs that the new federal legislature has the interest to face this challenge.
Mexico owes it to López Obrador for having put the issue of poverty in the center of the national agenda. Not since Lázaro Cardenas has the left held a stronger position. The left, however, must organize itself as a permanent movement and not as a contextual faction. It must go beyond the leadership of López Obrador.
Mexico’s presidential system requires profound adjustments that should be done both through political agreements and democratic practices. However, those who are necessary to form coalitions have opposite interests, where some people will exercise power and others will control it. A cabinet whose head is ratified by Congress could foster a political behavior more likely to produce agreements.
It is true, as many say, that political pragmatism has been the main reason for the PRIs failure in the last presidential elections. What is more, however, is that the PRI simply decided not to support its candidate because of the profound ideological division within the political party. This struggle between revolutionaries and reformists is reflected in some of the PRI governors decisions to support other candidates with more ideological congruencies. The PRI has not yet defined a project for Mexico.
Calderóns decisions to make his first tour through Latin America and to reject Washingtons recent foreign policy in regard to immigration clearly anticipate a different strategy from the one pursued by Vicente Fox at the beginning of his term. Calderón is starting his approach by emphasizing Mexicos double identity (closeness to the United States but with different cultural roots and history.) As Felipe Gonzalez recently said in Mexico, this characteristic should be seen as an opportunity and not as a contradiction.
The eternal elections process is being left behind. Long primaries, extensive and exhausting campaigns, and a continuous and catastrophic epilogue are coming to an end. Every formal stage of the process has concluded and now we can follow on. I don’t think that the perspectives of the new government are as terrible as Calderon’s enemies assume. The new President will have considerable advantages over his predecessor.
It is time to rethink what we have and what we need now that a new government is taking office. The mode social policy, development of infrastructure, and the nature of the government are going to be defined will depend on the extent to which the economy will grow. Thus, the latter is the major priority. Regional development and strategic use of resources will be key elements in the process.
The new government’s policy is being forged. Nonetheless, the team of the President-elect is immature. There is a lack of experience in Calderon and his people, who had a brief and unimportant role in BANOBRAS and the energy sector. It is expected that Calderon will pursue the same reforms that Fox unsuccessfully did.
Maps published by IFE show the distribution of Mexican voters living abroad, particularly in the United States and Europe, at federal, state, and local levels.
Poll results show voters’ opinions regarding satisfaction with the electoral process, cleanliness of the elections, and the current political situation in the country.
In the most marginalized states in Mexico, the PRD won 66 electoral districts, while the PAN only won 39 districts. Meanwhile, in the states with the lowest levels of poverty, the PAN won in 49 districts, compared to the PRD, who won in only 33.
Rapid Count, PREP, and District Count, 2006 Results Compared
Exit polls conducted by Parametria regarding the presidential race reveal which types of voters were more likely to vote for certain candidates, which regions voted for candidates, when and how voters made their decision, and approval ratings of President Fox.
The July 2 elections confirmed regional divisions in Mexico in which the north and center-west of the country favored PAN candidate Felipe Calderon, while the south and center-east regions demonstrated more support for PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
This document presents the issues that President-Elect Felipe Calderón considers part of his agenda and which imply participation of Congress. The legislative agenda is divided in five sections: rule of law and public security, economic competitiveness, equity of opportunities, sustainable development, and effective democracy.
In July 2000, Mexico elected Vicente Fox as president, taking its largest step to date in the process of a democratic transformation. In July 2006, it elected a new president, and because the constitution prohibits executive re-election, all of the leading parties offered new candidates. It is impossible to predict the outcome of any presidential race far in advance of the actual event, but we accumulated considerable information about Mexican voters and their behavior since 2000, and these data offer fascinating insights into how they behaved and who they supported in the 2006 race.
The Citizens’ Committee for Monitoring the Electoral Process considers that the decision made by the Federal Electoral Tribunal is indisputable and final, but also feels it is necessary to analyze and critically evaluate the content of the decision.
Information on the development of the electoral contest from June 15 to September, including information on campaign finance, election results, post-election events, and national and international electoral observation initiatives, among others.
In the House of Deputies, the PAN won 206 seats, the PRD received 125, and the PRI, 104. In the Senate, the PAN earned 52 seats, 30 for the PRD, and 32 were earned by the PRI. Because no party won a majority of seats in either house, coalition building will be necessary to pass legislation and constitutional reforms.
An analysis of the results of the 2006 presidential elections by two Mexican political scientists suggests that the specific claims of fraud against Lopez Obrador do not seem to be grounded in fact.
On Thursday, July 20th, Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute released information on the 2,873 ballot boxes that were opened and where ballots were recounted on July 5th. The size of the errors in the vote totals in 2,534 of the 2,873 recounted ballot boxes resulted in a difference of 5.1 percent for López Obrador and 3.8 percent for Calderón. In an election where the difference between the two candidates is 0.58 percent, these are large errors.
A video discussion about the Mexican presidential election with Jorge Castaneda, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Pamela Starr of the Eurasia Group, and Chappell Lawson of M.I.T.
The Citizens’ Committee for Monitoring the Electoral Process shares with other citizens a reasonable doubt concerning who won the presidential election. The Electoral Tribunal has the ability to take measures considered necessary to erase all shadow of a doubt regarding the will of the citizenry as was proclaimed in the ballot boxes. It is hoped that that public officials and the President will obtain the vote totals and will not order an annulment of the elections.
Since 2000, the Electoral Tribunal has ruled on ten electoral issues relevant to the current decision the Tribunal will have to make concerning the presidential elections. This feature provides information on how judges voted in past decisions.
Mexican voters got more than they bargained for in the national elections held Sunday, July 2, the second democratic presidential vote since the 2000 contest ended seven decades of single-party rule. After the tabulation of all tally sheets, Felipe Calderón, a member of Fox’s conservative National Action Party (PAN), appeared to have won by a slim margin of about 244,000 votes out of some 41 million. His close rival, former Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), rallied supporters and told them that the election had been stolen and informed reporters that he would stop at nothing to claim the presidency for himself. Mexico’s current government should not abandon laws and institutional redress because of street protests. At the same time, the president-elect will need diligence and smart tactics to overcome a weak mandate and unrest drummed up by an angry rival.
For comments or questions regarding this website or the elections themselves, please write to Mexico@wilsoncenter.org
This webpage seeks to provide balanced coverage of Mexico's 2006 elections. The Mexico Institute is a non-partisan organization. It does not endorse any political party or candidate or the views expressed in the articles that are summarized.
Webpage Editors: Andrew Selee and Jesús Silva-Herzog Marquez
Assistant Editor: Kate Brick
Collaborators: Elvia Zazueta, Jessica Martin, and Marco Fernández
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