MEXICO: Broad-Based Accord Seeks Democratisation

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Jan 19 1995 (IPS) - The Mexican government and political parties drew up an accord this week that seeks what many consider to be long overdue: the democratisation of the country.

Political leaders agreed that the accord will establish practices “appropriate to a democratic republic” by means of “in-depth” reforms of the political, judicial and electoral systems.

Home secretary Esteban Moctezuma said “the accord is important on a global level. Mexico was the ugly duckling in terms of democracy, but that is over now,” making it clear that not only the opposition considers that an urgent change is needed in the country’s electoral and political systems.

According to President Ernesto Zedillo: “Mexico is today taking the first step towards the building of a full, unblemished democracy. Right here and now, one historical era is concluding and another beginning.”

After a month of intense negotiations, the four political parties represented in the Mexican parliament signed a pact on Tuesday which did not detail a working agenda but will initiate a dialogue to focus mainly on guaranteeing fair elections.

The accord was signed by the leaders of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), the centre-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the small Labour Party (PT).

In Mexico, where the PRI has been in power since 1929, the electoral process is continuously questioned. Until 1988, elections were under the responsibility of and directly controlled by the government.

Since three electoral reforms were agreed on by Mexico’s parties between 1989 and 1994, elections have been managed by a supposedly independent electoral institute.

This week’s pact is the farthest-reaching accord signed by Mexico’s political parties since the initial electoral reform went into effect in 1989.

The first task laid out by this week’s pact is a solution to post-election conflict in the southern states of Chiapas and Tabasco, where last year PRI governors entered office.

According to the political opposition, which has staged roadblocks and paralysed oil installations in those states, their candidates were the true winners of last year’s elections.

The reforms approved six years ago emerged after a split within the PRI and following the 1988 presidential elections won by that party’s candidate Carlos Salinas.

The opposition accused the PRI of fraud designed to block Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who had left the party, from reaching the presidency.

“We Mexicans had accepted fraudulent electoral practices by the government as part of reality. It was not until the 1988 elections that the majority of the population became fully aware of that,” said analyst Demetrio Sodi.

As PRD candidate, Cardenas came in third in last year’s elections with 17 percent of the vote, while PRI candidate Ernesto Zedillo won amidst accusations of fraud by both the PRD and the PAN.

Irregularities in the tallying and ballot systems, adulterated voting lists, the use of public resources to promote the PRI and manipulation of the media were among the accusations made against electoral authorities.

“The reform of the state that Mexico needs must eradicate mistrust and recriminations that tarnish the electoral process. For that reason, a definitive electoral reform will be included in the dialogue between the political parties,” said President Zedillo.

With the signing of the “committment towards a national political accord” as the pact is called, “we are moving from stability based on authoritarianism to the stability of democracy,” said analyst Jaime Sierra.