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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Burning the ballots

By Jeremy Schwartz | Tuesday, September 26, 2006, 11:33 AM

The presidential election controversy here is moving into territory similar to the period after the Florida 2000 fiasco, when a number of newspapers performed their own recount of the ballots. The media outlets got access to the votes through public information laws and found that Al Gore would have lost even if the Supreme Court had agreed to his partial recount request. But a close look at the ballots also found that Gore might have won with a recount of the entire state.

Here in Mexico, media outlets are trying to do the same thing under Mexico’s 4-year-old freedom of information law, but they are getting the cold shoulder from an obstinate IFE, Mexico’s election commission. While Mexico’s version of the Freedom of Information Act is quite broad, the IFE is arguing the ballots aren’t technically documents and should be burned in accordance with Mexican law.

It’s a strange stance for the IFE, which has stressed transparency and fairness in Mexican elections, and underwent a massive overhaul more than a decade ago in response to rampant fraud that used to mark this nation’s elections. Even presidential winner Felipe Calderon has called for the ballots to be preserved.

The IFE’s credibility already has taken some heavy blows from losing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has charged fraud and an IFE cover-up. Lopez Obrador repeatedly called for a full recount but was denied by Mexico’s electoral court, which agreed to only a partial recount.

Back in 1988, the ballots were quickly burned to hide a massive fraud that most observers agree robbed leftist Cuauhtémoc Cardenas of the presidency. The dirty tricks of that election, including the burning of the ballots, spurred much of the electoral reform that was supposed to have made this election clean.

Many here are wondering why the IFE would fight the unofficial recount, especially since it could go a huge way in legitimizing the results. Without it, millions of Mexicans will never believe Calderon won the election.

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