Mexicans Vote in ‘Scrutinized’ Election

Voters in this industrial state lined up to cast ballots Sunday in what one politician called “the most carefully scrutinized elections in Mexico’s history.”

Returns from the voting for governor of Nuevo Leon and members of the state legislature were not available immediately after the polls closed. But what was clear were substantial flaws in Mexico’s new electoral system, the centerpiece of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s democratic reform effort.

Substantially the same system will be used in next month’s congressional elections. The system has been so troubled that both IBM, which has a computer contract for voter registration, and Kodak, which is making voters’ credentials, have disclaimed responsibility for the problems.

Each of the three major parties, including the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that has governed Mexico for 62 years, raised objections that were made public at midday by the state government. Most objections involved polling officials who were not following procedures.

Local newspapers and citizens’ groups kept count of the voters leaving polling places to assure their tally coincided with the number of votes from that polling place. They also checked on the number of ballots delivered, which in some cases were too few for the number of voters registered in the precinct.

Sunday’s election lacked both the enthusiasm and the violence of the governor’s race here six years ago, which many voters are still convinced was won by the conservative National Action Party, known as PAN.

“We saw a lot of not terribly important irregularities and are not clear whether they will affect the outcome of the voting,” said Jorge Castaneda, a specialist in Western Hemisphere affairs and a frequent government critic from Mexico City. Castaneda was here to observe the elections at the request of a coalition of opposition parties and citizen groups.

The Mexican government has rejected opposition party requests for international observers at the elections, saying they are not needed and an infringement on the country’s sovereignty.

All three major parties have called for clean elections.

Opposition parties placed importance on such irregularities as polling places that opened late or allowed people who were registered to vote, even if they lacked credentials. At two sites, party activists were distributing campaign materials, which is illegal.

“These vices stem from years of training people to commit fraud, and they continue to flourish despite the good will of candidates from all parties,” said Rogelio Sada, PAN gubernatorial candidate.

The other candidates were Monterrey Mayor Socrates Rizzo of the PRI and Lucas de la Garza of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD.