Disputes, Fear of Violence Mark Mexico Vote Count

Amid fears of violence and charges of ruling party manipulation, the official count began Sunday of last week’s hotly contested and potentially historic elections in the northern Mexican state of Baja California.

Late in the evening, with some electoral results being released, it appeared that the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, had won five legislative seats--three in rural zones of Mexicali, one in Tecate and one in an outlying area of Ensenada. The opposition National Action Party, or PAN, meanwhile, had emerged triumphant in at least four districts, all in Tijuana.

Six other legislative seats remained undecided late Sunday evening.

The apparent legislative victories for PAN in Tijuana could be significant, as the PRI had earlier claimed victory in much of the city.

Earlier Sunday, PAN declared that there was evidence of systematic electoral manipulation by the PRI.

“There is a tendency to revise the results to reduce our votes,” said Jesus Rivera, state chairman of PAN.

A number of tense standoffs were reported at various counting sites, mostly schools. Activists from all parties, seeking to prevent fraud, have been maintaining vigils outside of the sites, where ballots and electoral tallies have been held under army guard since last Sunday’s elections.

At stake are the Baja governorship, 15 seats in the state legislature, and the mayoralities of the state’s four municipalities: Tijuana, Mexicali--the state capital--Ensenada and Tecate.

The ruling PRI has already acknowledged that its gubernatorial candidate, Margarita Ortega Villa, a federal senator who represents Baja in Mexico City, is the likely loser to Ernesto Ruffo Appel, a PAN candidate.

With Ruffo’s election apparently clinched, much of the interest in recent days has focused on the other races, where both sides have claimed victory. Particularly crucial are the disputed results in Tijuana, the state’s most populous city, with up to 1.5 million residents.

PAN maintains that it has won at least nine of the 15 legislative slots, including all six from Tijuana, giving the opposition a solid majority in the state legislature. PAN has also claimed triumphs in the mayoral races in Tijuana and Ensenada. The PRI has claimed likely victory in 12 of 15 legislative slots and also maintains that it has won the mayor’s post in Tijuana. Both sides agree that the PRI is the likely winner of the mayor’s race in Mexicali, and that PAN will likely be victorious in Ensenada, the hometown of Ruffo.

Regarding alleged PRI manipulation on Sunday, Rivera, PAN state chairman, said that PRI officials involved in the vote counts were citing numerous “irregularities”--ranging from mathematical errors in the tallies to allegations of PAN intimidation at voting precincts. The complaints could form the basis of annulled results in many districts.

The ultimate outcome, PAN leaders said, could be to give PRI a majority in the five-member state electoral college, which is scheduled to ratify the vote in October. A PRI-controlled electoral college, PAN says, would open the way for a PRI majority in the state legislature and in the city halls, largely reducing the effectiveness of the new PAN governor.

PRI officials have denied allegations of electoral fraud and manipulation, accusing PAN of the same underhanded tactics.

Conducting the vote counts are electoral committees composed of members of each party. The process is supervised by a state electoral commission that is nominally independent, but which opposition leaders have long charged is manipulated by the vast PRI apparatus.

At Leona Vicario elementary school here, where a number of ballots were being counted, banner-waving PRI and PAN loyalists engaged in several near confrontations Sunday. The two groups frequently shouted barbs at each other across a 10-foot-wide “no man’s land” set up by local authorities.

“We are here to ensure that the law is respected,” said Carlos Ling, a PAN candidate for city council in Mexicali, who was standing outside the elementary school with a group of fellow PAN supporters.

Across the short divide, PRI officials accused the opposition observers of using intimidating tactics and attempting to provoke violence. PRI loyalists charged that PAN’s gubernatorial candidate was an agent of U.S. imperialism. (Ruffo, a Mexican citizen, was born in San Diego, a fact that has sparked considerable controversy here.)

“We dont want to turn our state over to foreigners,” said Javier Castro, a Mexicali teacher who is a longtime PRI supporter. Ruffo’s election, Castro said, would signal the “end of democracy” for the state.