Baja Bernie - 6-23-2007 at 07:21 PM
June 23, 2007
Baja California News
State Election in Crisis
With six weeks to go before voters elect a new governor and
other state and local representatives, the election process
in Baja California is in turmoil. A state election court
threw a wrench into the heated contest June 20 when it
annulled the gubernatorial candidacy of gaming magnate
Jorge Hank Rhon of the So You Can Live Better Alliance, a
grouping made up of Hank's Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI), Mexican Green Party and Baja California State
Party. The court ordered the PRI and its allies to find a
substitute candidate within 10 days of June 22.
Rejecting the possibility of substituting a candidate for
Hank, the national PRI leadership announced it will pull
out its heavy legal guns and appeal the Baja California
court decision to the federal election court.
Accompanied on a Mexicali campaign swing by Alejandro
Gallego Basteri, brother of popular singer Luis Miguel,
Hank initially said that he would continue giving press
interviews as the "non-candidate." Later, while waiting for
legal challenges to take their course, the embattled
gubernatorial hopeful suspended his campaign.
The election tribunal ruled that Hank's campaign bid
violated Baja California's so-called "grasshopper" law that
prohibits elected officials from running for another office
while still serving terms in their original positions.
Hank abandoned his job as Tijuana mayor to run for the Baja
California governor's seat, but could be considered in
technical violation of the law since he requested a leave
of absence to pursue higher office.
Hank's supporters immediately denounced the court's
decision, blaming Baja California Eugenio Elorduy of
President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party (PAN) for
interfering in the state election.
"(Elorduy) not only stuck his hands into the election
process, but his entire body," charged Hank campaign
advisor Eduardo Bernal. In a June 23 Tijuana ceremony held
to honor athletes, Gov. Elorduy declined to comment on the
latest political developments.
Obdulio Avila Mayo, a federal deputy and PAN national
leader, ridiculed the PRI for shedding crocodile tears over
a candidate who was supposedly 8 points behind the PAN'S
Jose Osuna Millan in the polls. In apparent reference to
the controversial Hank, Avila contended that Mexicans must
prevent politics from becoming infested with mafia-like
types.
Meanwhile, in the state capital of Mexicali, youthful PRI
members staged a weekend protest against the electoral
court's decision to remove Hank from the race.
The annulment of Hank's candidacy was the latest
development to unsettle an already turbulent election
process. Earlier this month, the State Electoral Institute
(IEE), the state agency responsible for organizing and
overseeing the election, warned that the PAN-led state
government's failure to increase the election budget
threatened to bankrupt the IEE and force it to dip into the
retirement funds of its workers to pay for the August 5
election.
Members of the IEE registered complaints with the Inter-
American Commission on Human Rights, the federal government
and national political parties, charging that the state
government is trying to "sabotage" the electoral process."
Baja California political consultant Felipe Morales
predicted that the mounting pre-election day conflicts,
coupled with the negative media campaign between Hank and
Osuna, will turn off voters and possibly cause many to stay
home on election day.
"We can observe that the campaigns in this electoral
process have not gone beyond the membership of each of the
strong parties," Morales said. "(The campaigns) consign
society to the sidelines in favor of the publicists
involved with the politicians, and they don't offer
alternatives to society."
On the national level, it remains to be seen how the Baja
California election crisis will influence the PRI's
collaboration with President Felipe Calderon on economic
and social policy questions.
Sources: La Jornada, June 20 and 23, 2007. Articles by
Antonio Heras and the Notimex news agency. El Universal,
June 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 2007. Articles by Rosa Maria
Mendez, Francisco Resendiz, Lilia Saul, and the Notimex
news agency. Frontera, June 23, 2007
[Edited on 6-24-2007 by Baja Bernie]