Previous Delegations And Reports
Nayarit (1999)
Guatemala (1999) Mexico
(2000)
Peru (2001) El
Salvador (2003)
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Background Information on
July 2000 Mexican Elections
"Vicente
Fox, new president of Mexico, promises a glowing future - but is hounded by the
sins of the past"
-article by John Ross
On July 2, 2000 Mexicans
went to the polls to elect a new President,
Congress, several state governors, and the mayor of Mexico City. These
elections represented a major milestone in Mexico's difficult path toward
democracy. The ruling state party Partido Revolucionario Institucional
(PRI) had ruled Mexico at the federal level for more than 70
years.
Until recently, Mexican elections have been marred by fraud and violence.
Since 1994, however, as a result of national and international pressure, there
has been a gradual democratization of the electoral process in Mexico.
Recent electoral reforms and the emergence of a civil society dedicated to
promoting democracy has made it increasingly difficult for Mexico's ruling PRI
party to commit the large-scale election day fraud of past elections.
Nevertheless, such practices continue in some areas, and a visible international
presence on election day is needed to discourage the use of such methods.
The Alianza Civica and other Mexican watchdog groups
warn that
the more subtle forms of political control continue to be significant
impediments to the development of democracy in Mexico. Illegal
campaign financing, lack of equitable access to media, use of state resources to
boost candidacies, and patterns of repression by army, police and paramilitary
organizations continue to be serious concerns. Mexico's civil
organizations such as Alianza Civica and international delegations such as
CommonBorders play an important role in ensuring that the elections are fraud free, democratic and
adhere to international electoral standards.
CommonBorders,
formerly known as Building Bridges, is a Victoria-based group that has organized
previous election observer delegations to Mexico and Guatemala. Alianza Civica, Mexico's foremost civil society organization,
asked
CommonBorders to join with them in organizing a Canadian international
delegation to observe the July 2, 2000 elections and work together to promote fairness and transparency in the conduct
of the elections by observing electoral processes at the national and state
level.
The delegation began in Mexico City with
a week of training with the Alianza Civica and other international delegations,
and later divided into teams in order to observe the
immediate pre-electoral conditions as well as election day itself in several states
chosen by Alianza Civica. A report outlining the group's findings and experiences during the
election will soon be available online.
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