by Manuel Carrillo and Carlos Navarro 

Mexico faced several difficulties after the July 2006 presidential elections which intensified clamors and exigencies for review and adaptation of an adequate legal framework for a highly competitive multi-party system.  In light of such demand, all political forces represented in Congress passed, by majority vote, an important package of constitutional reforms ensuring greater equity and better control mechanisms for elections, this past September.

With approved constitutional reforms, to be followed shortly by important adjustments to the electoral law, Congress honored the commitment it made last December to integrally review and adapt the legal framework for elections in Mexico. In order to support the reform process and encourage productive deliberations within Congress, the IFE conducted a national survey on electoral modernization and reform.

The survey was based on the fundamental idea that all interested citizens, including representatives of political parties, legislators, experts and general public, could express their opinions and suggestions in improving and strengthening the electoral system.  In order to fulfill these objectives, the IFE formed a working group of electoral councilors and representatives from national political parties and the IFE General Council Legislative Branch.  This group was responsible for defining the agenda, format and requirements for the “National Forum for Reflection and Analysis on Electoral Modernization and Reform.”

In order to encourage broad participation, the working group publicly promoted a national invitation on March 14, 2007, in each of the 32 federal states. The invitation listed all aspects related to participation in the Forum. In order to focus presentation and analysis of the proposals, six areas were delineated:

1. Electoral procedures: registration, organization and logistics of elections, voting abroad and the structure of the IFE
2. Generation and dissemination of electoral results: publishing of preliminary results, surveys, vote counting and official tallying of results
3. Campaigns: conditions of equity and access to media for electoral advertisement and duration and regulation of campaigns
4. Regulation: of political parties and national political associations in areas of prerogatives and obligations, funding and oversight of campaigns, monitoring media and guarantees of transparency and accountability
5. Citizen participation: electoral participation, civic education and the different aspects of civic participation in the electoral process
6. Resolution of controversies: electoral justice, sanctions, declaration of validity, causes of election annulment and other electoral offenses

The forum consisted of three sessions: April 25-27, 2007, for areas 1 and 2; May 30 to June 1 for areas 3 and 4; and June 20-22 for areas 5 and 6. All proposals had to be received and registered at IFE offices countrywide, prior to the forums. IFE offices were tasked with logistics management in order to hold simultaneous public sessions in all 32 states. In order to facilitate preparation of the proposals, IFE offered a series of technical diagnostics on each of the six topics, as well as support materials on its website (www.ife.org.mx).

It is important to note that given the interest Mexicans living abroad showed in participating in this survey, the workgroup decided to issue a special notice.  The special notice allowed Mexican ex-patriots to present their diagnostics and suggestions for reform and modernization of the Mexican electoral system. Mexicans living abroad had July 27, 2007, as their deadline to e-mail proposals to IFE.

The final result of the survey was the receipt of 3,420 proposals reflecting on modernization and reform of the country’s electoral system.  Proposals came from a complete cross-section of Mexican society, ranging from legislators, to representatives of political parties, to academics, experts, students, the general public and Mexicans living abroad.

The distribution of proposals per topic is shown in the chart below:

As a follow-up to this initiative, the workgroup agreed to carry out an International Seminar to analyze aspects related to the six topics from an international comparative perspective and from the perspective of Mexican opinion leaders. The International Seminar on Electoral Reform was carried out in IFE facilities in Mexico City from August 21-23, 2007, in collaboration with UNDP-Mexico, the EU, IIDH-CAPEL, as well as representatives of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Mexico and the Special Prosecutor for Electoral Offenses of the General Attorney’s Office (FEPADE).

As expected, all the proposals presented in the National Forum and in the International Seminar formed the basis for a final report which included technical studies prepared by IFE and reports prepared by domestic and international observers of Mexico’s 2006 federal elections. The final report was delivered to parliamentary leaders August 31, 2007, a day before the ordinary session of Congress started.

On September 12, 2007, after intense debate and negotiation, the Senate approved constitutional reforms with significant adjustments and modifications on various electoral matters.  The new reform cut the length of presidential campaigns almost by half, gave the IFE power to regulate party primaries, cut public funding to political parties and banned all political advertising outside of officially arranged time slots. 

It is expected that all necessary procedures for approval and promulgation of constitutional reforms will be finished in the following weeks. On this basis, the reforms will be immediately discussed, agreed, and added to the electoral legislation, so that can be in place for the 2009 midterm election. As a result, Mexico will have a more comprehensive and strict legal framework to face the challenges of a growing and intense electoral contest.  The new legal framework will offer better electoral service that contributes to strengthening and enhancing the quality of democracy.