The federal elections in Chiapas took place with 48% abstention rate, 22% of the votes for the PRI, 14% for the Alianza por el Cambio, 13% for Alianza por Mexico, 1% for the rest of the parties, and 2% of votes nullified (the latter equaling 44, 426 votes).

In the federal elections of 1994, there was an electoral participation rate of 67% of the population in Chiapas; in 1997, it decreased to 35%; and, in these elections of July 2, 52% of the electoral list voted. Chiapas was 12 points less than the national average in terms of electoral participation and was the state with the highest abstention rate in the country. Neither abstentionism nor fraud have yet to be defeated.

The PRI won 11 of the 12 federal deputy positions in Chiapas, two senatorships and the majority of presidential votes. Although the PRI abstained 43% of the votes cast, this only represents a little more than 22% of the electorate.

The Alianza por el Cambio obtained the federal deputyship in District 09 of Tuxtla Gutiérrez with a high margin in their favor. This was also the district in which they received the most presidential votes.

According to the results obtained in the third federal district in Chiapas, which has its head in Ocosingo and includes the municipalities of Altamirano and Las Margaritas, 48% of the nominal list did not vote. This district is where the highest number of military camps and soldiers are found.

Chiapas ranked 28th amongst the 32 states (including the Federal District) in the country in terms of number of presidential votes received by the PAN. Vicente Fox did not convince the indigenous population, despite his promises to fulfill the San Andrés Accords, prosecute paramilitary groups, and withdraw the Mexican Army in 15 minutes. Fox also stated, on June 27 in Tapachula, that “in the next six years, in all of Chiapas, there will not be a single rural community or popular colony that lacks potable water, electricity, drainage, telephone communication, internet, highway transportation, health centers, or middle and superior education levels” and that he will guarantee that “Chiapas will never return to having a single young person who does not study.”

For both the PRD as for the PRI, Chiapas ranked sixth among all the states in terms of number of votes each party received.

Despite the abstention rate (48%), if we add up all the opposition votes cast in Chiapas in the election on July 2, it amounts to nearly 100 000 votes more than those received by the PRI. This means that the PRI will have to commit a huge fraud to be able to maintain the governorship of the state. In addition, according to the public opinion poll taken between July 12 and 18 by GAUSSC-Grupo de Asesores Unidos in 100 000 Chiapanecan households distributed through 110 electoral sections, 55.4% prefer the candidate Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía of the Alianza por Chiapas (which is an alliance of eight political parties), while 38.3% prefer the PRI. This amounts to a difference of 17 points, making it technically impossible for the PRI to win the elections for the state government on August 20. Moreover, on August 2nd, Alducin y Asociados published its poll, the results of which were 69.5% in favor of Pablo Salazar and 26.6% for the PRI candidate, Sami David.

We can analyze the prospects by municipality. If the opposition that voted in the federal elections of July 2 returns to vote in the state elections according to the same logic, then Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía of  the Alianza por Chiapas will win in 52 of the 111 municipalities in the state (46% of the total), including the municipalities with the highest number of voters in the state: Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Tapachula, Palenque, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Villaflores, Pichucalco, Cintalapa, Chilón, Tonalá, Ocozocoautla, Arriaga, Chiapa de Corzo, Reforma, Ixtapa, Suchiapa, Amatenango del Valle, Nicolás Ruiz, Totolapa, Sitalá, Tila, Yajalón, La Libertad, Salto de Agua, Bochil, Huitiupán, Jitotol, Rayón, Tapilula, Chapultenango, Juárez, Francisco León, Ocotepec, Osumacinta, San Fernando, Berriozábal, Jiquipilas, Mapastepec, Pijijiapan, Acapetahua, Huehuetán, Huixtla, Mazatán, Villa Comaltitlán, Chalchihuitan, Villa Corzo, Cacahoatán, Frontera Hidalgo, Metapa, Suchiate, Tuxtla Chico and Unión Juárez.

In 11 municipalities, the PRI had only 10% more votes than the opposition, and, is therefore susceptible to lose these. These are: Comitán, Villa Las Rosas, Tumbalá, Simojovel, Copainalá, Escuitla, Tuzantán, Frontera Comalapa, Motozintla, Tenejapa and La Concordia.

The municipalities in which the PRI had more than 10% of the votes in its favor in comparison to those received by the opposition totaled 48: Acala, Soyaló, Chiapilla, San Lucas, Socoltenango, Venustiano Carranza, Teopisca, La Trinitaria, Tzimol, Altamirano, Ocosingo, Sabanilla, Catazajá, El Bosque, Pantepec, Pueblo Nuevo, Tapalapa, Amatán, Ixhuatán, Ixtacomitán, Ixtapangajoya, Ostuacán, Solosuchiapa, Sunuapa, Coapilla, Chicoasen, Tecpatán, Acacoyagua, Bejucal de Ocampo, Bella Vista, Chicomuselo, La Grandeza, Mazapa, El Porvenir, Siltepec, La Independencia, Las Margaritas, Chanal, Huixtán, Oxchuc, Cancuc, Chamula, Chenalhó, Larráinzar, Mitontic, Pantelhó, Zinacantán and Angel Albino Corzo. In about half of these municipalities there is an EZLN presence.

The state is divided into electoral districts; and, these are divided into sections that can have from 1 to 4 voting stations. In the previous  elections, the PRI managed to receive a majority of one vote over the opposition in sections like some in the municipalities of Pijijiapan, Tenejapa and Tuxtla Chico. It won by 2 to 10 votes in Acacoyagua, Acala, Acapetahua, Altamirano, Arriaga, Cintalapa, Chiapilla, Chilón, Chicomuselo, Escuintla, Huehuetán, Mazatán, Las Margaritas, Ocosingo, Pantelhó, Pichucalco, San Fernando, Salto de Agua, Simojovel, Suchiate, Tecpatán, Villa Corzo and Villa Flores. The section in which the PRI won by the highest margin (1 038 votes) was at voting station 723 in Las Margaritas.

The trends can be analyzed from the point of view of the federal election results in terms of the state electoral districts. Of the 24 districts, adding the votes for the Alianza por Chiapas, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía will win in 14. These are Districts 01, 02, 03, 05, 08, 09, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 23, and 24.

In Chiapas, the presidential defeat of the PRI has provoked the flight of thousands of PRIists from various municipalities and sectors to join Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía. For this reason many municipalities in which the PRI could guarantee its victory with lower or higher margins could be lost on August 20th. The epitaph of the official party is already written.

ELECTORAL FRAUD BEFORE AND ALWAYS

After the federal elections of July 2nd, the state Alianza Cívica concluded that “In Chiapas, this electoral process is not even over and abundant irregularities have been observed which, from the preliminary stages, put in doubt the quality and transparency of the elections. The context in which the process developed has been  determined by militarization and police bodies in control of almost all of the regions of the state, paramilitary groups that operate with the protection of the government against dissident communities, pueblos, and displaced communities, expulsions produced by the political religious intransigence, crime and violence to induce fear in the population, partially in the management of information and above all, the generalized, shameless use of public resources  to support official candidates. The right to FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, the right to a FREE VOTE, the right to INFORMATION were restricted for a large majority of Chiapanecan citizens during the months preceding Election day.”

Among the multiple denunciations about electoral frauds and anomalies on the part of the PRI, communities, social organizations and observer groups reported the following:

• Verification of voters by lists.
• Intervening in and watching over voting stations and ballot boxes.
• Control of the vote of women through the Programa de Educación, Salud y Alimentación (PROGRESA) (Education, Health and Food Program).
• Verification of ballots before they were deposited in the ballot boxes.
• Verbal aggression against some observers.
• Expulsion or intimidation of representatives of political parties at the voting stations.
• Economic promises to functionaries at the voting stations or handing out resources.
• Recording voting credentials whereby the vote in the state election was set down.
• Transporting voters.
• Distribution of sheeting, chickens, dispensations, mills, and other goods in exchange for votes.
• Rumors along the lines of- if the opposition wins the presidency, then they will eliminate economic support for social programs and to ‘combat poverty.”
• Pressure on functionaries and bureaucrats to vote for the PRI.
• Use of municipal infrastructures and authorities to carry out the campaign and frauds in favor of the official party.
• Theft of packets by functionaries of the voting stations and militants from the PRI when their party did not fulfill economic payments that it promised them.
• Collection and renting of voting credentials.
• Illegal nullifying of votes for the opposition when the votes were counted.
• Inclusion of PRI propaganda in bags used for food distribution and other governmental support.

In addition to these and other anomalies, other problems that were observed included: serious deficiencies in the training of functionaries of voting stations and in the broadcasting of the locations of voting stations; deficient handling of voting documentation and voting incidents on the part of functionaries; copious voting at special (mobile) voting stations by soldiers who had an abusive attitude and lacked respect for voting line-ups; and, hundreds of people that were unable to vote in the special voting stations.

A delegation of more than thirty academic observers from Japan, Europe and the United States which visited Mexico from the May 19th to 20th and which was organized by Global Exchange, Alianza Cívica and other organizations, produced a report “The pre-electoral conditions in Mexico, 2000”, in which they concluded that “the systems of investigation and punishment for violations of electoral laws and the means used to document the complaints apparently have significant weaknesses.” According to the observers, some remote areas did not receive adequate information, particularly where indigenous languages were prevalent.

In the specific case of Chiapas, the observers received reports along the lines that some voting stations were located to make them accessible for PRI sympathizers, while sympathizers for the opposition in some cases were forced to travel two or three hours to vote. They also stated that the municipal president of Chenalhó mentioned that he received 3 million pesos for the Programa de Empleo Temporal (Program for Temporary Employment) a little before the elections.

According to the report by the Comisión de Radio Difusión (Radio Broadcasting Commission), the statistics for Chiapas indicate that between January 19th and April 8th, the PRI received 57.2% of all air time, the Alianza por Mexico 19.7%, and the Alianza por el Cambio 10.7%. For the period between March 12th and April 8th, the data is as follows: PRI 75.3%, Alianza por Mexico 9.9%, and Alianza por el Cambio 3.6%.

(The report can be found in its complete form at the web page: www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/mexico/preeleccion2000/appendices.html)

Finally, the victory of the change in presidential power created a smoke screen over the huge electoral fraud in Chiapas which is now planned and executed with more force. The governors of the PRI from the Southern region have closed ranks to support the candidate of Sami David. At the same time the opposition parties and various sectors are making an urgent call to society to recruit observers, defend the vote and prevent fraud, and, to the PRI to banish the fraudulent practices that have characterized it.

THE PRI STRATEGY

In the past, the PRI candidate Sami David David was attacked in the head with an object when he was campaigning in front of the house where his opponent was born.  In the morning, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía campaigned in the same way in a municipality further on. For this, he benefited from the occurrence a few hours earlier by requesting that his followers in Soyaló not fall into provocations. Nonetheless, PRIists and Alliance supporters confronted each other with blows and insults.  There are many versions, and they favor each side. However they happen, these types of actions do not contribute to breaking down political polarization or animosity or to building the tolerance necessary for the electoral process to move forward.

This completely reprehensible aggression has been used by the government and the official party to try to pick up the failing campaign of Sami David, a campaign which strays far from the preferences of the voters. The PRI is the political party that has the least reason and moral authority to accuse its opponent and all the other parties that form the Alianza por Chiapas of wanting violence and siding with intolerance. Also, the official party has until now used the press, radio and television in the state to launch a dirty war. Its fight is neither through a prognosis for the state (whether poverty or no poverty, whether dialogue with the Zapatistas or unilateral measures in the style of Albores Guillén, etc.), nor is it by proposals to take Chiapas out of the political, social or economic backwardness in which it is stagnating.

The PRI campaign has centered around the ‘hunger vote’ by buying votes, particularly those of indigenous women, through handing out dispensations, metal sheets, and promises of credit and money from programs to ‘fight poverty’. In the past, with complete cynicism and nerve before the eyes of society, a vehicle from the city hall in San Cristóbal distributed dispensations to indigenous people in front of the municipal presidency and next to a huge sign with PRI propaganda. In addition, there is also the ‘vote of fear’ which is instigated by the paramilitary groups, the threats and new expulsions in the northern zone by Paz y Justicia, and the threats in Ocosingo, Chenalhó and other municipalities.

Now the PRI distributes handbills accusing Pablo Salazar of being an evangelist and someone who will, upon becoming governor, destroy traditions and the Catholic religion, which will generate violence and religious intolerance. However, it is the PRI militants of Chamula who for years have prohibited  evangelical worship and temples, and who, with the support of the government,  for years have expelled (and who continue to expel) from their land thousands of evangelicals. It is PRI militants who fill out the ranks of the paramilitaries and the majority of whom do not belong to the Catholic church. The paramilitaries who murdered 45 Catholic women and children in Acteal with the complicity of the government, police and members of the army, and who are now sentenced to jail, were also PRIists.

It has been during the administrations of  PRI governments when Cathecists have been murdered, when Catholic religious temples have been burned, closed, and profaned by paramilitaries; when priests from the San Cristóbal de las Casas diocese have been expelled; when its bishops have been accused, defamed, and have been the target of attempted assassinations; and when its priests have been persecuted and incarcerated. The majority of the thousands of displaced people are the result of the actions of sympathizers of the actual government. Thus, the foundations for this campaign are not only absurd, but it is precisely this party and government which have been characterized by the generation of violence, paramilitaries, impunity, displacement, and religious intolerance.

The historical memory of the people no longer permits the PRI and the government to generate consensus and credibility before the majority of society. Consensus, credibility, and legitimacy are three fundamental elements for a government to be democratic and to be able to steer Chiapas toward peace. This peace means not only the absence of bullets, but, all that is required to achieve development for everyone without exclusion, with active and participatory democracy, and with dignified justice for everyone, banishing impunity and corruption.

In this context of the dirty war and the elections that will take place in the state, someone dedicates a lot of time to boycotting information from CIEPAC and other non-governmental organizations. While our bulletins are sent only one time, cyber-pirates send many copies at the same time to saturate and tire readers. We have also had interference during our electronic communications, documents altered and diverted, and other mechanisms that are part of an attempt create a fence around information about the events that we have and will live through in Chiapas. Thanks to all the people who have written us showing their comprehension, solidarity, support and resistance.

The defeat of the PRI in Chiapas will be the last bit of dirt on its tomb. The PRI knows that its loss will strike at the morale of PRIism at a national level (which is already threadbare). The governors of the country will fall one by one. The PRI is already a zombie, this being the only way it can revive itself. Its ghost wanders through society but, for this, is no less dangerous (Zombie, according to the Larousse dictionary, means the serpent god in the voodoo cult, with the capacity to return to life as a skeleton. A corpse resuscitated by a witch doctor to have at his service. A person devoid of will).

To see a map on the federal and state electoral districts in Chiapas, consult www.ciepac.org. In addition, you can consult Bulletin “Chiapas al Día” No. 193, in which we include an analysis of the trends and candidates, at this webpage. On the other hand, the Artistas Independientes, Alianza Cívica, and the Coordinación Pro Elecciones Limpias have a call out to all people who have video cameras to film the electoral process. This notice can be found at the following webpage: www.laneta.apc.org/sclc