By Alfredo Corchado
The Dallas Morning News
MEXICO CITY - The women of Colonia Vicente Guerrero showed up at their precinct at noon July 2 to cast their ballots in the presidential election. But before they even reached their destination, representatives from Mexico's three major political parties stopped them with irresistible propositions, they said.
Representatives of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and the National Action Party, or PAN, offered them beans, rice, sugar, salt and cooking oil, the women said. The offer from the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, included a couple of pounds of tortillas, but they had to provide names, addresses and phone numbers of at least one relative, the women said. And if PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lost, they said they were told, they or a relative would have to march on his behalf.
At another polling place near the Zocalo, Lourdes de los Reyes, 53, a PRD polling observer, noticed some voters were taking pictures with their cell phones as they marked their choice for president, she recalled.
When she questioned one voter, she said, she was told that “in order to keep our jobs, we must vote against Lopez Obrador and for Felipe Calderon,” the PAN's candidate.
Ahead of Mexico's presidential election, citizens often were reminded that the country had changed and that modern, democratic traditions had taken root. But some say that despite a sophisticated, billion-dollar electoral system and respected institutions such as the Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, elections in Mexico remain susceptible to vote-buying and other forms of corruption.
Officials of the PRD, PAN and PRI acknowledge that there continues to be electoral abuse and say they welcome specific complaints that can be checked.
The tactics, experts say, are reminiscent of the practices that the PRI used to remain in power for 71 years. The party was ousted from the presidential mansion in 2000 by Vicente Fox of the PAN.
This election season, thousands of poor Mexicans were threatened with losing their health care and housing benefits if they did not vote for a particular candidate, according to a study by Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan citizens' group funded in part by the United Nations.
As many as 4 million people receive benefits through state or local governments controlled by the three main parties, and those benefits often are used as carrots to persuade people to vote a certain way, said Silvia Alonso Felix, the alliance's executive director.
The PRI continues to lead the way with such tactics, but the PAN and PRD are not far behind, Alonso said.
She added that such practices “could make the difference, especially in a close, competitive election.”
Coercing votes and other illegal tactics are among the key issues in the aftermath of the recent presidential election. Calderon won by fewer than 244,000 votes out of more than 41 million cast, and Lopez Obrador, the runner-up, has asked that the Federal Electoral Tribunal, the country's highest electoral panel, order a vote-by-vote recount. He has rejected the results.
Calderon's margin represents fewer than two votes per polling place, of which there are about 130,000 in Mexico.
Alonso said the possibility of voter coercion “raises serious doubts about the winner of the presidential election and makes it all that more necessary to ensure certainty in the election results.”
The Civic Alliance study was conducted in 101 cities in 22 states and involved interviews with 11,500 voters. Mexico has 31 states plus the Federal District.
IFE officials conducted voter education campaigns throughout the country and have insisted that they are confident the election was fair. But some officials acknowledged that vote buying does still occur.
IFE spokesman Javier Esquivel has said the election was the cleanest in recent times. But some experts say problems remain.
“Democracy in Mexico exists for about 70 percent of the Mexican population,” said Primitivo Rodriguez, a longtime democracy activist. “The 30 percent remaining is still under the thumb of political chieftains. You cannot have true democracy without real education. In other words, vote coercion is very much alive.”
Mexico City resident Guadalupe Ornelas Fresas, 51, said he was promised a permit to operate his cab in exchange for his vote.
“Everyone is looking for a way to make a living, and if it's casting a vote for whoever helps you make ends meet, then so be it,” said the father of four.
Alicia Mendoza, of Colonia Vicente Guerrero, said she had agreed to show up for a march earlier this month in support of Lopez Obrador as part of a deal with PRD representatives.
Mendoza did attend, although grudgingly, she said. On election day, she took a food package and the equivalent of $ 25, to vote for the former Mexico City mayor.
Julieta Reyes Garcia, also of Colonia Vicente Guerrero, said that she did take food offered by the PAN but that when it came time to select a presidential candidate, she was so overwhelmed by pressure at the polling station that she made a cross by the names of all the major presidential candidates.
That effectively annulled her vote. She said she suspects PAN leaders may at some point ask people to march on their behalf, just as the PRD has.
“They won't fight like dogs for a bone (over me) because I have too much work to attend marches for any politician,” she said.