Since 1994, Global Exchange has worked with our partners in Mexico to promote fairness and transparency in the conduct of elections by observing seven electoral processes at the national and state level. During the year 2000 electoral cycle we will be involved again with an innovative four-part approach for careful observation. We have developed this approach with Alianza Civica, Mexico's premier civil society elections watchdog organization.

Traditionally, election observation has focused almost exclusively on election day itself. But we and our Mexican partners have learned that this model does not effectively address the current problems facing democracy in Mexico. As the recent tragedy in East Timor dramatically illustrated, extremely undemocratic conditions can hide behind a superficially clean voting process. Mexico has made great strides in the last decade to end large-scale, blatant election day fraud. The greatest threats to Mexican democracy now lie in the pre-electoral conditions, which all too often have been marred by corruption, media bias, intimidation, and the misuse of state resources. While observation of the election itself will be an important component of the Alianza Civica/Global Exchange elections project, our efforts will focus on investigating, analyzing, and publicizing the pre-electoral conditions in Mexico.

Phase one of our plan is to bring a small delegation of prominent civic leaders from Mexico to the United States in February 2000. In Los Angeles and Washington DC, the delegation will hold press conferences, speak with editorial boards, and meet with US policy-makers and key academics to provide an alternative "civil society" perspective on the state of democracy in Mexico. Themes for their critique will include:

• The militarization of Mexico and how it will affect voter confidence and turnout;
• Human rights abuses and the intimidation of political opposition;
• The denial of voting rights to Mexican nationals living in the US;
• Lopsided campaign finance and how it distorts the electoral playing field;
• Inequitable access to media; and
• The use of state resources to influence voting.

To carry out this plan we will work with the National Center for Social Communication (CENCOS), a Mexican non-governmental organization dedicated to amplifying the public voices of various Mexican social sectors, and CommunicationWorks, a US non-profit public relations organization. The project is funded in part by the MacArthur Foundation.

Phase two of our plan involves bringing another delegation of Mexicans to the US to observe and report on the state of US democracy during our primary elections process. The delegation will focus its attention on the March 7th California primary. Using the same criteria for electoral fair play that US election watching teams have applied in Mexico, this team will look at some deficiencies in our own democracy including the influence of elite and corporate wealth in our elections, unequal access to media, and low voter turnout rates. We are excited to be part of this expression of solidarity from Mexico toward the people of the United States.

Phase three of our project will take place in May of 2000 when, in conjunction with Alianza Civica, a skilled North American delegation will visit Mexico to assess Mexico's pre-electoral conditions. The delegation will produce a report of its findings that will be sent to policymakers in the US and Canada as well as to editorial boards and reporters throughout the world. This report will also be a handy guide for the international election observers who arrive in late June in preparation for observing the actual voting on July 2.

Finally, in July 2000 we will work with Alianza Civica to coordinate a large electoral observation delegation to the July 2nd elections.

For more information about the elections project or if you are interesting in participating in one of our election delegations, please contact the Mexico campaign at mexico@globalexchange.org. We are currently looking for experienced, Spanish speaking election observers to join the May leadership delegation.