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Republic Mexico City Bureau
July 7,
2003
Summary: Mexican President
Vicente Fox is a member of the National Action Party (PAN), which
suffered losses in the Chamber of Deputies election, weakening his
position. The strongest party in Congress is the Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party which controlled Mexico from
the time of the revolution in 1910-1917 until the elections in 2000
where Fox became President.
Mexico's voters deal Fox setback,
deny him a majority in Congress
Republic Mexico City Bureau
By Tessie Borden
July 7, 2003 MEXICO CITY - Voters sent President Vicente
Fox a strong message Sunday, denying him his coveted majority in the
500-seat lower house of Congress and giving more control to the
political party he ousted from the presidential mansion three years
ago. Results of the nationwide midterm elections were viewed as a
referendum on the first half of Fox's single term in office, and a
quick count conducted by the Federal Elections Institute showed that
the Institutional Revolutionary Party will control 222 to 227 seats
in the Chamber of Deputies. A reinvigorated PRI means Fox will have
to hurry to build connections with Congress if he is to have any
hope of passing initiatives that have become his most pressing
goals: fiscal, labor and energy reform. Perhaps more important, it
means the 2006 presidential elections are wide open and Fox's
National Action Party (PAN) has no guarantee of repeating its
stunning 2000 win. The election, coming at the midpoint of Fox's
presidency, became a rejection of the change promised when Fox
reached the presidency, ending 71 years of one-party rule by the
PRI, which was marked by rampant corruption and authoritarianism.
"This is a mandate for dialogue, restraint and building
agreements," Fox said in a televised address Sunday. "Now comes the
time for working together," he said, acknowledging that Mexicans
want him to work more with Congress. "People really are upset with
the PAN," political analyst Jorge Chabat said. "Fox didn't do
anything. He didn't put anyone in jail, he didn't come up with any
agreements. I hope the PAN will react after this." Violence by
voters Some of the upset showed in fistfights and burnt voting
booths that kept elections from proceeding in San Salvador Atenco,
in Mexico state, and in Chiapas state, both places where Fox's
efforts have failed spectacularly. In Atenco, angry residents last
year defeated Fox's plans to build an airport on commonly owned
land. In Chiapas, indigenous people led by the Zapatista Army of
National Liberation remain angry over an indigenous bill of rights
that became law despite what they viewed as serious weaknesses. In
all, 80 of more than 121,000 voting booths, less than 1 percent, did
not work or could not be set up because of the violence, according
to the Federal Elections Institute. The institute's quick count of
unofficial results showed the PRI got 34.4 percent of the vote and
PAN 30.5 percent, slightly less than percentages predicted in
pre-election polls. PAN likely will hold 148 to 158 seats in the
lower chamber. The Democratic Revolutionary Party received 17.1
percent of the vote, staying within performance forecasts and
earning 93-100 seats, the elections institute said. The results
largely agreed with election day polls. An exit poll by the
newspaper Reforma showed the PRI with 37.5 percent of the vote in
the congressional races, while PAN held 31 percent and the
left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party, Mexico's third major
party, had 18 percent. As it did in congressional sessions in the
past three years, the PRD will have the chance to play the spoiler
for Fox's initiatives if it chooses to ally itself with the PRI.
Alliances with PAN are less likely, though not impossible. Fox has
an ace in Elba Esther Gordillo, the PRI secretary who is assured a
seat in the lower chamber and is most likely to lead the party in
the Congress. A longtime friend of Fox and of his former foreign
secretary, Jorge Castaˆ±eda, Gordillo has been described by analysts
at Merrill Lynch as the person who will provide a bridge for Fox to
achieve at least some wins in Congress. For example, though
Gordillo has kept her views close to the vest on the controversial
topic of energy privatization, party President Roberto Madrazo
Pintado is open to the possibility. She likely will follow the
party's line. On Sunday as voters went to the polls, Gordillo kept
things diplomatic. "Our responsibility of tomorrow is for the PRI
to seek consensus, to give direction to actions (of the Congress),"
Gordillo said as she emerged from the voting booth in Mexico City.
"This consensus will be to seek everything that, through the
legislative route from the legislative branch means governing with
responsibility, with commitment to Mexico and Mexicans." The
balance of the vote percentage in Sunday's elections went to the
Green Party, with 6.2 percent; the Workers' Party, with 2.4 percent,
and the newly formed Convergencia Democratica, with 2.3 percent.
Other small parties did not gain enough votes to retain their
federal registration. Turnout low at polls Voters trickled into
polling places in a steady but thin stream, and officials at two
polling places estimated turnout at about 40 percent. "It's
disastrous," said Agustin Romero, who trekked from his new home on
the outskirts of town to vote for the PRD in the central
neighborhood of La Condesa because of a recent move. "It looks like
they don't think the people have a memory. Now the PRI wants to save
us and the PAN believes it's the master of the country when during
more than 60 years it wasn't even a real opposition." Withholding
judgment Belen Gomez, voting in La Condesa, said it's too soon to
pass judgment on PAN. "I think they have to be given an
opportunity," she said. "Let's see if they get a majority and if
they do what they can." Some who took time to go to the polls said
that, beyond any disillusion with campaigns and promises, they
consider it their duty to vote. Antonio Salas Contreras, a
64-year-old amputee in a wheelchair at a polling place in the
working-class Doctores neighborhood, made his way to the booth
though he had little sense of the candidates. "Well, it's my
obligation," he said. "With my years, I have been in many elections
in which one doesn't specifically go for a candidate. Why? Because
one doesn't know him." Salas Contreras said he voted for the PRD,
the party of Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has
garnered unprecedented support through visible public works projects
like a giant loop overpass to relieve traffic and aid programs for
the elderly. With three years before the next presidential bout,
Lopez Obrador, the PRD's likely entry, appears to be the strongest
politician in Mexico. Voting in his home state of Tabasco, Madrazo
Pintado said he felt good about the PRI's performance in this
election. "All the polls are indicating that the PRI will be the
party with the greatest number of deputies," he said. "We are very
optimistic about the chance of obtaining this majority, and we are
very happy that it might happen this way." |
