Mexico Aiming for Kinder, Gentler Elections

MEXICO CITY — When Felipe Calderon unleashed a series of blistering TV ads comparing front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to Venezuelan lightning rod Hugo Chavez, most experts agree Mexico's 2006 presidential election shifted course.

The negative ads were just one ingredient in a brutal two-year campaign that ended in chaos: Lopez Obrador refused to recognize Calderon's victory, and Mexico passed through a summer of rebellion.

A year later, Mexico is dramatically overhauling its electoral process in hopes of avoiding a repeat performance in 2012. Once the reforms are passed — individual states are expected to approve the changes soon — Mexico's electoral system will more closely resemble the relatively polite European model than anything seen in the United States.

The next presidential election will last only 90 days. Paid TV and radio ads will be banned, and Mexico's election authority will try to regulate the negativity out of Mexican politics.

The electoral reforms, which Congress passed this month, are the result of the intense negotiation that is quickly becoming the hallmark of Calderon's young administration. Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolutionary Party had sought the reforms since the election, and in effect traded them for a tax reform measure pushed by Calderon's National Action Party, analysts say.

The electoral reform has mostly been applauded in Mexico as necessary to fix the country's interminable and expensive campaigns, although critics argue it stunts freedom of expression and could lead to censorship.

"With a shorter campaign, the people will be less tired," said Rogelio Hernandez Rodriguez, a political scientist at the College of Mexico. "Last year all the negativity and accusations resulted in the voters losing interest."

Most dramatically, the reforms do away with paid advertising on TV and radio, which analysts say accounted for 70 percent of the estimated $350 million spent by the parties on the 2006 election.

The reforms also ban ads by special interest groups. During the 2006 campaign, Lopez Obrador railed against ads by business groups that insinuated he would spark an economic crisis.

Instead of ads, Mexico's radio stations and two major networks will be forced to broadcast 48 minutes a day of free air time for the candidates. Mexico's electoral authority, the IFE, can block any programming that it determines "denigrates" another candidate.

Few expect the IFE to be able to fairly or effectively police negative messages. "They are trying to elevate the level of debate," wrote former IFE president Jose Woldenberg recently. "But it will be more than difficult for the (electoral) authority to clearly establish the line between valid criticism and 'denigrating expression.' "

The reforms have generated intense opposition among a pair of strange bedfellows: the powerful TV and radio lobby, which has blasted the legislation as "Soviet," and citizen groups that worry the laws will limit their influence.

"During campaigns we come out against candidates we feel are not doing their job correctly," said Jose Antonio Ortega, president of a citizen's group that monitors public safety. "This is a restriction on our freedom of expression."

The new rules, however, don't mention anything about Internet proselytizing, and interest groups like Ortega's are expected to turn to the Web to reach the masses.

Others have worried that the reforms, instead of advancing Mexican democracy, represent a return to the authoritarian past. The reforms give the parties more control over the independent electoral authority and remove IFE President Luis Ugalde, who was demonized by Lopez Obrador after the election.

And some analysts say that the ban on advertising could bring back the days when political parties paid journalists under the table for favorable reporting. "Today the incentive to operate in darkness will be greater," wrote political analyst Alfonso Zarate in the Mexico City daily El Universal. "The media will still have the power to create or destroy images, they will continue to decide which issues and political personalities to cover."