Federal Electoral Institute

• To see a depiction of what the ACE Network is about click here.

• To read a Launching document of the ACE Network click here.

Scope of countries

For specific information on individual countries, please visit the country pages below

• Costa Rica

• Cuba

• Dominican Republic

• El Salvador

• Guatemala

• Honduras

• Mexico

• Nicaragua

• Panama

• Puerto Rico

Welcome to the Regional Centre for Central America. This page is facilitated by IFE, an associated member of the ACE network. Here you will find updated information about the region, such as electoral news, case studies and election-related links.

To access this material, use the menus to the right. If you need information about other regions, select another Regional Centre from the drop-down menu on the left side.

Regional Election Spotlight

Forthcoming elections 2008

Mexico

      | State Congress

October 19th

Coahuila

      | Municipalities

October 5th

Guerrero

November 9th

Hidalgo

Nicaragua

      | Municipalities

Nicaragua is divided into 153 municipalities*

November 9th

Puerto Rico

      | General

November 4th

* Elections in the Autonomous Region of the North Atlantic (RAAN) were delayed

MEXICO

STATE CONGRESS AND MUNICIPALITIES

On Sunday July 6th the state of Nayarit, west of the country, had elections. Through them the citizens were able to choose those who would take office as: 20 mayors, 30 local congressmen (18 by majority and 12 by proportional representation) and 138 Councillors.

1,220 polling stations were installed, that is about 95% of the ones that have been scheduled. As of July 7th 289,410 votes had been counted, and only 8,049 were not valid.

You can browse through the preliminary results, and some relevant news of the electoral process. (in Spanish)

PUERTO RICO

GENERAL ELECTIONS 2008

On November 4th the citizens of Puerto Rico will be voting for the candidates chosen by them to run for public offices on March 9th.

Although these elections coincide with the presidential election of the United States of America, and even when Puerto Ricans took part of its primaries, the results will have no effect on the outcome.

PUERTO RICO

DEMOCRATS' PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES 2008

These elections took place, for the first time in Puerto Rico's history since it became part of the commonwealth, on June 1st.

Since the 2'366,674 registered voters as of May 2nd are not divided by political party, all of them could cast their vote in these primaries to decide who would get the 55 delegates that were stake.

The overall cost for these election was stated to be of $2.5 million dollars, for an expected turnout of 25% at most.

The previous figures were extracted from an article by Manuel Ernesto Rivera of AP in the New York Times.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

On May 16th elections took place for the president and vice-president to be elected, who will take possession on August 16th, 2008.

Leonel Fernández Reyna and Rafael Alburquerque De Castro of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) were reelected as president and vice-president respectively, after obtaining 53.83% of the valid votes that  were cast that Friday. Miguel Vargas Maldonado,  of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, got 40.48% of the votes, leaving 5.59% to the five remaining candidates. The results can be consulted at the Central Electoral Board's website, which is the insitution in charge of organising the elections in Dominican Republic.

Have none of the candidates obtained the absolute majority (50% of the vote plus one more vote) a runoff would take place on June 30th, since there must be 45 days between the first and second round. In the runoff only the two candidates who had received the highest number of votes the first time around.

The president is elected by popular vote at the polling stations (Colegios electorales) where the citizens themselves receive those votes, and then counts them. It is the citizens who tell the Central Electoral Board who obtained how many votes, so that the list of elected candidates (Relación de Candidatos elegidos) can be published.

You can find news and specific information at the Dominican Republic's page, which we hope will be useful for you. More information can be found at the Spanish version of the same page.
 

PUERTO RICO

PRIMARIES 2008

These elections took place on March 9th. 'Primaries' is a preliminary election in which the registered voters of a political party nominate candidates for office.

The local Puerto Rican political parties' results for this election can be found here.

Upcoming events

3er Diplomado de Geografía Electoral, política y territorio. Inicia el 28 de marzo y termina el 22 de agosto del 2008. Se impartirá en las instalaciones del Instituto de Geografía de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Para mayores informes haga click aquí.

México

Las autoridades electorales del continente, en el marco de la IX Conferencia de la Unión Interamericana de Organismos Electorales, se encontrarán en El Salvador en octubre.

El Salvador

Recent events

II Meeting of Young Parliamentarians from Latin America and the Caribbean

Mexico

The II Meeting of Young Parliamentarians from Latin America and the Caribbean took place on March 27, 28 and 29 in Mexico City. It was addressed to young parliamentarians of the region between 18 and 36 years old, and in some cases even 40 years old. You can read the transcriptions of the news bulletin and speeches for the opening and closing ceremonies by clicking on the images kindly provided by the area of Communication of the Republic's Senate. You can read a preparatory document and the event's agenda here. (All documents are in Spanish)