“When do we find a governing people?… The answer is: in elections.”
Giovanni Sartori, Theory of Democracy
President Lopez Obrador declared yesterday that “the June 2 elections “They will be the cleanest and most peaceful in history.” The statement reveals a lack of contact with reality or an outright lie. Since the creation of an independent electoral referee in the nineties, and the definition of equitable party and campaign financing rules in 1996, we have had in Mexico the first democratic period in history, as demonstrated by the alternation of parties in power . The reforms of the 1990s led the PRI to lose for the first time the absolute majority of the Chamber of Deputies in 1997 and the Presidency in 2000. Between 2000 and 2018, opposition candidates have won three of four presidential elections. Gone are the times when PRI leaders told us that Mexico was a democracy. without alternation.
Maybe the 2024 elections They can still be described as democratic, since the electoral institutions maintain much of their independence, but they will not be the cleanest or the most peaceful in history.
They will not be the cleanest because the president has had his hands in from the beginning. He launched the succession process before the legal pre-campaign time. Since 2021 he sent his corcholatas to tour the country to make them known, giving the opposition an early rise. Throughout the mornings he has constantly intervened in the process, attacking the opposition and supporting the candidates and positions of his party. Even yesterday he boasted that under his command an authentic democracy has been created: “It is no longer a caricature of democracy; Democracy is not a façade that allows a mafia of power to operate behind it, an oligarchy that was the ones who felt like owners of Mexico.” Another example of intervention.
The president has attacked the INE and to electoral Tribunal when they have not done what they are told. He has refused to allow the appointment of two missing judges in this court. He no longer remembers his complaints regarding the two statements of Vincent Fox in the 2006 campaign, which led him to shout “Shut up, chachalaca,” and which, according to the Electoral Court, put the election in danger. Fox’s two sentences, in which he did not even name López Obrador, pale today in the face of AMLO’s constant electoral interventions, which have generated more than 30 precautionary measures, to which he has simply ignored.
Will these be the most peaceful elections in history? It’s impossible now. They could be the most violent. The Secretary of Security Rosa Icela Rodríguez reported yesterday that 22 people “related” to the electoral process have been murdered: eight candidates registered with the INE, four pre-candidates registered with their parties and 10 candidates for candidacy not yet registered by their parties or by the INE. Electoral Laboratory, which does not limit its reports of political violence to candidates, reports 82 murders, of which 37 have been of candidates for a candidacy, in addition to 65 attacks, 108 threats and 17 kidnappings. Integralia Consultores reported yesterday that the number of victims of political violence increased from 299 in 2020-2021 to 749 in 2023-2024, including 239 murders.
It has not been the cleanest process nor the most peaceful, but it can still be democratic. to dry. For that, the president must stop intervening, promoting his candidates, and disqualifying the opposition. It is not easy, considering his personality, but it is the only way that the elections of June 2 can be remembered as democratic.
Violence
Yesterday a man was murdered and five people injured, including a minor, while they were guarding the Institute of Elections and Citizen Participation in Simojovel, Chiapas. The attack was carried out by armed individuals. The victims will not appear on Rosa Icela’s list of electoral violence. because they were not candidates.
- About politics and worse
- Yes, AMLO handed the country over to crime!
- AMLO does not even see electoral violence
- Elections in the eye of cybercriminals
#Clean #peaceful
