New Winds in Mexican Politics

Fair play in Mexican elections has come a long way in recent years, as international observers have testified. In the countryside some abuses still tilt results but rarely enough to counter a solid trend.

So why does the Party of the Institutionalized Revolution, the long-ruling PRI, continue to hold the presidency, have twice the number of governorships held by the combined opposition, dominate the Senate and hold a majority in the lower house of Congress? In part, because of the PRI’s popularity, and also because the PRI knows how to use and abuse its power at election time.

This week, Mexico’s two main opposition parties introduced a reform bill in Congress that seeks to equalize political opportunity in time for next year’s presidential election. The PRI should take this chance to demonstrate its professed commitment to democracy by supporting some of the opposition measures to improve the electoral process. But the opposition should not expect to win on all these proposals.

The reform package is ambitious and some of its provisions will prove hard for the PRI to swallow. For instance, the opposition wants to establish a second round of voting in the event no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote. The PRI says it won’t accept this. Nor will it buy a demand that the opposition be allowed to form a coalition to compete against the PRI.

Showing some flexibility, the PRI has hinted it might agree to regulation of pre-campaign financing and would support equal television time for all candidates.

On the issue of granting citizens living abroad the right to vote in Mexican elections, which the opposition wants, the PRI says it is willing to reach a compromise. In the complicated transition to democracy that Mexico is undergoing, there should always be room for negotiation.