Global Exchange
October 7, 2001

This coming Sunday, October 7 2001 local state elections will be held in Chiapas. One hundred eighteen municipal governments and forty local deputies are up for decision. Historically, elections have brought heightened tensions and violence within communities as political parties fight for votes. Despite last year's election of Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, the opposition candidate from the Alliance for Chiapas, little has changed in the political climate of Chiapas since 2000. While the governor belongs to the opposition coalition, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) maintains a two-thirds majority in the Chiapas state congress and the majority of the people in the state's political apparatus who work in the communities are PRIistas. Also, the majority of official campaign funds continue to be funneled into PRI coffers through campaign finance reforms enacted in the last state congress. Despite the rhetoric of President Fox, there has been no significant demilitarization of the state and paramilitaries groups continue to be harass, intimidate, and disrupt community life with impunity. The fate of some 20,000 internal refugees is in question due to electoral regulations that require voting in one's community of origin. Paramilitary violence on election day continues to cloud the possibility of honest voting in indigenous communities and marginalized urban areas.

In addition to these conditions, the PRI continues to use the distribution of government aid and development boons to secure allegiance and votes in rural communities, to the point that sometimes this "aid" is given in cash. Already during this years campaign there have been accusations of vote-buying and coercion. According to the Attorney General's office, Chiapas has the third highest rate of electoral fraud in the country, after only Mexico City and the State of Mexico. In addition to the various forms of electoral fraud committed by the parties, informed voting is also hindered by the distance which rural voters must travel to reach voting booths, the lack of communication and clear information about the candidates and the low levels of education within the communities. In Chiapas the abstention rate is approximately 50%, the highest in the country, and the rate for this election is expected to be higher than before. Furthermore, among the approximately 50% of the population that does vote, the results will be dispersed among so many parties that, in the end, the elected party will have only a slight advantage over the losing parties and little support from the population in general. Some of this abstention is intentional, as many autonomous communities have established their own local governments according to indigenous traditions and customs and do not participate in state elections.

In the wake of the PRI's gubernatorial defeat in 2000, several parties have decided to sponsor their own candidates for this year's elections. Unlike last year, there has been no strong opposition coalition, due in part to a recent PRI-sponsored electoral reform which moved the date for filing candidacies up to March 31 for the October 7 elections, a date which effectively rutted any efforts to form a coalition around an opposition candidate. In the city of San Cristóbal alone there are six parties sponsoring candidates for local deputy, of which five are former PRI militants. The differences between the candidates remain unclear--they have done little to publicize their platforms and refuse to participate in public debates, but continue to spend massive amounts of campaign funds on publicity, concerts, raffles and other forms of public entertainment.

Sources: La Jornada, Milenio, Alianza Civica Chiapas, La Foja Coleta