Elections in Mexico, 2009

I arrived in Oaxaca on Sat July 4 and have really enjoyed my two days here thus far. I just want to take a moment to talk about the nationwide elections, which happened on Sunday, July 5, 2009.

Sunday, I was set to go on a guided tour of some sites in Oaxaca Valley. Tule, Teotitlan del Valle, Mitla, and the Sunday Market in Tlacolula. The tour started from a downtown hotel and the entrance to the hotel was a polling place. I had already seen one other in Central Oaxaca. They are open air and the election workers were of all ages, serious and working quickly to give people their ballots. There were other polling places near the tree with the largest girth in the world in Santa Maria Tule, and the Sunday Market in Tlacolula.

I asked the guide, Daniel, if he was planning to vote, and he said no, because he had to work. He said this election probably more people were going to vote than previously because they had added a ´none of the above´option. That is, instead of voting for one of the candidates offered by a polictical party (there are six or eight different ones) there was also the option to vote for ´none of the above.´ Daniel thought that this option was a better reflection of most of his friends feelings and so some may feel motivated to vote now. He did not think that voting really would make a difference for him.

A tourist from England who had just spent 5 days in Mexico City commented that there seemed to be a lot more interest in the elections based on the amount of posters and billboards one saw about in Mexico City compared to Oaxaca. I hope that people in other parts of Mexico are more interested in the elections than here. I have been surprised at how little interest I find when I ask people.

In Tlacolula, there was a table to get your ballot with about six people working, two polling booths and a clear box to place the ballots. Then there was a line up of about 8 people watching the proceedings. This was all out side under a makeshift awning. I talked to one gentleman in this group, the only one without a seat. He said they were all representatives of different parties and watching to make sure that all was going well. He thought everything was fine, he thought the turnout was low, but no worse than previous elections. He explained that the ballot box was clear so that all could agree that it was empty when voting began.

I asked him which party he represented and he hesitated. Then he showed me a picture of his candidate. That was no help. I didn´t get it that there must be a rule against even mentioning a party or candidate that near to a polling place. Then he wrote ´PT´which I knew stands for Partido Trababjo or Labor Party, probably the most left wing of the choices. I knew this because I saw a march of PT supporters last weekend in Tehauntepec. The taxi driver I was with said that party had little chance of being successful in the elections.

On the TV News they talk about how PRI (in power for decades but currently out of power) was making a comeback and PAN (the party of President Calderon) needed to regroup. It seems like the announcers were all in favor of PRI in principle, so I don´t believe I have a good handle on what happened. President Calderon made an announcement about the elections at 10 PM. This morning the TV news featured election results but also gave time to the President of Honduras´troubles, ethnic problems in China and of course Micheal Jackson´s funeral. So, other news got through.

Tomorrow I return to the US. I will do a few follow up and evaluative blogs from there.