Finally, the 2013 electoral process has concluded. There are still some pending challenges and many of the results aren\u2019t yet definitive, however, it is possible to observe that PRI has maintained itself as an important force in all of the country\u2019s states. Even though it lost some significant posts such as the Baja California governorship and at least 5 state capitals, opposition had an overall setback. In this context, both PAN and PRD have denounced several irregularities, claiming some sort of intervention by Governors. In theory, if these anomalies are proved to be true, there would be enough motives to walk away from the Pact for Mexico. As remembered, the essential motivations of the addendum referred to the misuse of programs and public resources with electoral means, from federal and local authorities. Having these kinds of suspicions is nothing new. In fact, there are several voices that claim that more control should be put into local electoral institutions and thereby, avoid governments from manipulating at will. This is how the proposal of creating a National Election Institute came to life, something that would act as a substitute for IFE as well as state electoral organizations. However, how convenient would it be to centralize the matter?<\/p>\n
The high level of abstention present in the last elections \u2013 in Baja California the number was around 60% -, in addition to phenomenon like blank votes or nomination of imaginary candidates, as a protest to the party regime, certainly exhibit a general disappointment of citizens with the political system. The apathy of voters is barely a symptom that they don\u2019t feel represented by politicians at all, they even describe the latter as corrupt, selfish and with little interest on solving the most urgent problems in the country. What should be done to enhance trust in institutions once again? As of now, parties don\u2019t seem to bother asking the question and are focused on what they consider an unfair participation scheme. Certainly, solving this conflict is essential if a solid democracy is one of the goals. Nevertheless, if people start to think that elections are just a mere proceeding to legitimize an immovable political class that is only interested in its survival, democracy can never be truly consolidated. This is complicated when voters perceive their concerns to be further away from politicians\u2019 true aims. The disappointment grows if they believe their decisions have little relevance and are decided by groups that are out of touch with their reality. This could have happened in Baja California, with growing rumors about an agreement between PRI and PAN, in which the former may have conceded the state\u2019s governorship to the latter, in exchange of PAN\u2019s allegiance to the Pact for Mexico. Regardless of what may or may not have happened, a scheme where the people\u2019s will is of little importance when compared to agreements held would be a huge set-back. Democracy has the commitment of ensuring that authorities comply with their governed, not preserving their own privileges. This is complex when considering the existence of a federal pact, where the particular traits of every entity breathe life to the State. This is apparently not being respected, especially with the tendency of re-centralizing several of the government\u2019s powers, from security and tax collecting to electoral matters.<\/p>\n
The proposal of centralizing electoral matters using a National Election Institute could solve the problem of institutional co-optation from a local perspective, but would certainly weaken the institutional closeness with citizens. Besides, this initiative would be a sort of \u201cshot in the foot\u201d for opposition, due to the centralizing policies of the current government. The parties\u2019 weakness in some states is not explained with the Governor\u2019s power concentration but with their incapacity to create solid basis that would allow them to be competitive. Assuming that everything is more manageable when done from the political center, would have the potential of devastating the only way to fight the overwhelming impulse of federal government of controlling national politics: plurality.<\/p>\n
CIDAC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finally, the 2013 electoral process has concluded. There are still some
\npending challenges and many of the results aren\u2019t yet definitive,
\nhowever, it is possible to observe that PRI has maintained itself as an
\nimportant force in all of the country\u2019s states. Even though it lost some
\n significant posts such as the Baja California governorship and at least
\n 5 state capitals, opposition had an overall setback. In this context,
\nboth PAN and PRD have denounced several irregularities, claiming some
\nsort of intervention by Governors. In theory, if these anomalies are
\nproved to be true, there would be enough motives to walk away from the
\nPact for Mexico. As remembered, the essential motivations of the
\naddendum referred to the misuse of programs and public resources with
\nelectoral means, from federal and local authorities. Having these kinds
\nof suspicions is nothing new. In fact, there are several voices that
\nclaim that more control should be put into local electoral institutions
\nand thereby, avoid governments from manipulating at will. This is how
\nthe proposal of creating a National Election Institute came to life,
\nsomething that would act as a substitute for IFE as well as state
\nelectoral organizations. However, how convenient would it be to
\ncentralize the matter?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-3367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-political-analysis","tag-political-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3367"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4358,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367\/revisions\/4358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}