Number of international election observers down in Mexico since Fox triumph
E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, <a href=www.sfgate.com>Associated Press Writer
Friday, June 20, 2003
(06-20) 13:02 PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) --
The number of international observers registered to monitor the July midterm congressional elections is substantially lower than in past years -- a drop election officials attributed to decreased concerns about fraud following President Vicente Fox's election.
For decades, voters at home and observers abroad had little confidence in the electoral process. The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which governed the country for 71 consecutive years, was widely known for buying votes, coercing voters and stuffing ballot boxes.
During the PRI's reign, hundreds of observers from all over the globe, mostly from non-governmental human rights organizations, flocked to Mexico to oversee the elections.
In July 2000, the most recent presidential balloting, 860 observers from 58 countries witnessed the balloting. Despite the ever-present fears of fraud, however, that election was won by Vicente Fox, the first opposition presidential candidate to defeat the PRI since the party was founded in 1929.
One of Fox's biggest priorities has been to complete Mexico's transition from a country that critics once called a "perfect dictatorship" to a full democracy, revamping public institutions, opening government information to public scrutiny, and promising to maintain free and fair elections.
Two and a half years later, both the number and the nature of the international election observers has changed.
The monitors who plan to watch the July 6 elections are "more interested in the details of the electoral operation than ... guaranteeing their honesty," said Manuel Carrillo, director of international affairs for Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute.
This year, 65 percent of the accredited international observers are election officials, whereas in 2000, that percentage was made up by representatives of non-governmental organizations who monitor potential human rights abuses, Carrillo said. This year, non-governmental agencies represent only 4 percent of the total monitors, he said.
The overall number of observers also has dropped substantially from past years: In 1994, 950 foreign visitors from 40 countries watched the presidential elections, while in the midterm elections of 1997, 360 observers attended from 33 nations. This year, only 51 observers from 17 countries have been accredited, Carrillo said.
This year's monitors will hail from India, the United States, Canada, Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia and Puerto Rico, Carrillo said.
In the election, all 500 congressional seats as well as several governorships and a host of municipal seats are up for grabs.