Ruling Party Claims Win in Mexico Vote : Few Tallies Reported in Chihuahua State; Foes Allege Fraud

The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party claimed victory Sunday night in all major races in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua, where voters cast ballots for state and local offices amid charges of fraud by the major opposition party and with some signs of voting irregularities.

“Our party has a considerable margin in its favor,” said Manuel Gurria, a spokesman for the PRI, as the ruling party is universally known in Mexico. In spite of this claim, Gurria offered figures representing only scant results from remote towns.

The opposition National Action Party reacted to the victory assertion angrily. “This is an insult and a joke on the people of Chihuahua,” said Guillermo Prieto Lujan, state chairman of National Action, which is widely known as PAN.

The National Action executive committee will meet here Tuesday to decide what action to take, a spokesman said.

The election, for governor, 67 mayors and 14 state legislators, has assumed an importance far beyond the boundaries of this desert region across the Rio Grande from Texas. To some degree, the legitimacy of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, which has governed Mexico for six decades, is at stake, according to participants in the campaign.

“What is in question is the credibility of the system,” said Romeo R. Flores, a federal deputy of the ruling party.

Governor’s Race

In the key gubernatorial race, the PRI candidate was lawyer Fernando Baeza, running against Francisco Barrio of National Action, which was trying to become the first opposition party to win a state governorship. Three years ago, Barrio, an accountant, became the first National Action candidate to be elected mayor of Ciudad Juarez, the state’s largest city. He resigned that post to run for governor.

The mayoralty races here and in Ciudad Juarez were also considered important, since the PRI was trying to recover both city halls from National Action, which won them in surprise results in 1983.

Sunday night, the PRI claimed victories not only in the governor’s race but in the mayors’ races in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and 11 other major towns.

Official results of the balloting will not be announced for a week.

In Ciudad Juarez, officials of the PRI were claiming victory even before the polls closed, and National Action officials there, while not claiming victory, were expressing “optimism” that their gubernatorial and mayoral candidates would win.

The PRI, Latin America’s most durable political party, said throughout the campaign that it would win cleanly in Chihuahua and put to rest notions that it stays in power through electoral fraud. Party officials from all over the country came to the state to help get out the vote.

But early Sunday here in the city of Chihuahua, National Action officials charged that the election was being stolen by the PRI.

“Fraud is on the march,” National Action spokesman Eduardo Fernandez said. “We’ve not yet evaluated it all, but there is plenty.”

Spokesman Octavio Sandoval of the PRI said he had “heard nothing” about any fraud.

Heavy Security

Heavy security measures were taken in Ciudad Juarez, where federal policeman guarded the three bridges spanning the Rio Grande to El Paso and roving army patrols kept a high profile in the neighborhoods as the voting proceeded.

Authorities insisted that massive security was only a routine precaution, but some local residents thought otherwise.

“It’s like being in a state of siege with the police guarding the bridges with machine guns and the military constantly patrolling the streets,” said Josefina Lopez Garcia, resident of Colonia Arecco, a middle-class area in the center of the city.

Although no violence or serious incidents were reported when the polls closed, the steps taken by police and the large military force in Ciudad Juarez clearly showed that authorities were anticipating trouble. Federal officials apparently took seriously reports that National Action supporters would block the three international bridges if Barrio lost or if they felt that the PRI had stolen the election through fraud.

Opposition Denies Reports

National Action spokesman Carlos Angulo Parra heatedly denied the reports, saying, “That is a vicious rumor that has no substance to it. We are not advocating such an action or any incidents of violence.”

It was not possible to judge the extent of possible vote irregularities nor how they might affect the outcome of the balloting or public perceptions of the election. In area, Chihuahua is Mexico’s largest state.

Here in Chihuahua city alone, there were dozens of polling places spread over a wide area.

Foreign and Mexican reporters touring Chihuahua city were able to detect some apparent irregularities during voting hours Sunday.

In one working-class neighborhood, voting stopped soon after 8 a.m. when a voter casting her ballot said that the box was already stuffed with votes. A National Action representative charged that PRI poll watchers and officials refused to allow an inspection of three cylindrical tubes where voters place their ballots.

Ballot Boxes Full

Later, a visiting reporter lifted the ballot boxes--one each marked “Governor,” “Mayor” and “Deputies.” Each appeared nearly full, although bystanders estimated that only 45 citizens had voted.

Poll presidents and a majority of auxiliaries at each voting station are affiliated with the PRI. The poll president has the authority to a stop the balloting in the case of any disturbance.

At one polling place in Chihuahua city’s Progreso district, the polls opened at 6:50 a.m., more than an hour before the announced 8 a.m. starting time, according to officials from both PRI and National Action.

Early voter Evangelina de Cueto said that she detected that the boxes were already filled with ballots when she tried to put hers in. When she lifted one of the boxes, De Cueto said, a PRI poll watcher grabbed her and told her to leave.

“I said, ‘You’ll have to kick me out,’ ” she told a reporter outside the polling station. “They did.”

At many polling places where reporters could view the voting, there were no complaints and the balloting appeared to proceed smoothly.

Problems in Ciudad Juarez

In Ciudad Juarez, problems arose early in the day at several precincts, and National Action supporters and officials were quick to charge the PRI with election fraud.

At one precinct, the polls were closed almost as soon as they opened at 8 a.m. The first three people who voted came out and told about 2,000 waiting in line that the ballot box was already full. The precinct, officially Precinct No. 72, is a National Action stronghold.

The people waiting in line refused to vote until empty ballot boxes were brought to the precinct. Instead, the precinct president closed the polls.

Meanwhile, as the angry crowd grew vocal in its demand for empty ballot boxes, the army and police were called. Col. Jose Luis Enriquez Andrade pleaded with the crowd that the situation was out of his hands.

“I’m not authorized to go near the box, much less look inside,” said Enriquez. “My only obligation now is to see that nobody takes the box until the polls close and to maintain order.”

Neighborhood resident Ricardo Gloria cried angrily, “This isn’t democracy--this is fraud.”

Guillermo Terrazas, an official with the state electoral commission, which is staffed by PRI supporters, denied that any ballot boxes were stuffed.

“PAN makes that allegation all the time. They must figure that if they make that charge enough times someone will believe them,” said Terrazas.

Later, the military ordered the controversial ballot boxes burned, and voting resumed when state election officials brought three empty boxes.

Dan Williams reported from Chihuahua city and H.G. Reza reported from Ciudad Juarez.