06/20/11 – With less than a month until the central Mexican state of Estado de México elects a new state governor, many are keeping an eye on campaigns to avoid the possibility of electoral fraud. “Unidos Podemos Más,” the coalition between the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD), the Worker’s Party (Partido del Trabajo, PT) and Convergence (Convergencia), asked this Monday that the expenditures of one of its contenders, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI), be disclosed. The PRI declined to do so.
PRI campaign coordinator Luis Videgaray rejected the request to expose its party’s spending, stating it will only do so privately to the Electoral Institute of Mexico State (Instituto Electoral del Estado de México, IEEM). To ensure re-election, the PRI has allied with two smaller parties- the Green Party (Partido Verde Ecologista de México, PVEM), and the New Alliance (Partido Nueva Allianza, PANAL)- to form its own coalition. PRD leader Luis Sánchez had requested that the three-party alliance publicly disclose the allocation of 137 million pesos after Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez, a former PRI member now running as a PRD candidate, insinuated that the PRI-PVEM-PANAL coalition had spent more than was allowed.
On Sunday, the night before the expenditures request was made, a group of citizens reported to the District Attorney’s Special Office for Electoral Crimes (Fiscalía Especial Para la Atención de Delitos Electorales), of a possible electoral scheme. Along with pictures as evidence, they accused the PRI-PVEM-PANAL alliance of handing out propaganda in support of candidate Eruviel Ávila Villegas along with free groceries. Ávila Villegas was nominated by the PRI coalition to run for governor of the State of Mexico in late March, which came as a surprise to the media. He has since gained much support; El Universal reported up to 70,000 attendees at his latest gathering in El Tejolote, Estado de México.
Sources:
Maco. “Encinas emplaza al PRI a comprobar hoy gastos de campaña.” Informador. June 20, 2011.
A small correction: IEEM is the Electoral Institute of Mexico State (as in Estado de México), not ” Institute of State Elections”
Saludos