PAN's electoral lead challenged
PRI's Fernando Castro Trenti blasts preliminary tally
From The San Diego Union Tribune
By Sandra Dibble July 8, 2013
TIJUANA - "The National Action Party candidate's apparent victory in the Baja California gubernatorial election was challenged on Monday by political
opponents who called into question the preliminary results as the state's electoral institute revealed a technical flaw in the vote count.
While the PAN maintained that its candidate, Francisco Vega de Lamadrid, held a lead of three to four points over his main opponent, the latter
blasted the tally that shows him in second place in the race.
"What happened... was an indignity," Fernando Castro Trenti of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI, said during a crowded news
conference at the PRI's headquarters near the U.S. border. Just the night before, the former senator had been proclaimed the winner by his party's
national president, César Camacho, and was preparing to celebrate victory - but the mood soon turned somber as the preliminary tally showed him
trailing.
The results are unofficial, and intended to foreshadow the eventual winner. The official count begins Wednesday, and could conclude as late as Sunday,
said Rubén Castro Bojórquez, president of the citizen-run Baja California Institute for Electoral and Citizen Participation.
The dispute has capped a bitter contest for the top elected post in Baja California. The pro-business PAN formed an alliance with the left-of-center
Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, to fend off a challenge by a PRI-led coalition.
One figure that has not been in dispute is the low voter participation - about 40 percent of some 2.4 million eligible voters in Baja California. "The
citizens were not very happy with the smear campaigns and all the criticisms that went on," said Jorge Escalante, president in Tijuana of Coparmex, a
business group that sought to get out the vote.
Baja California has been governed by the PAN since 1989, and despite its relatively small population of 3.3 million, it is a powerful symbol of the
party's first state electoral victory and ability to endure. The PAN's apparent electoral victory Sunday has given hope to the party that has
struggling with divisions and a series of electoral losses in recent years, both nationally and locally.
The institute's preliminary tally shows the PAN poised to regain control of the state legislature, as its candidates triumphed in 10 of 17 electoral
districts, while the PRI maintained a lead in the remaining districts. The results also show the PAN ahead in the mayor's races in Rosarito Beach and
Mexicali, while the PRI appears headed for victory in Tijuana, Ensenada and Tecate.
The PRI's gubernatorial candidate was not the only one critical of the count. Castro Bojórquez, president of the electoral institute, said "we are not
validating the results," as the private company contracted to conducted the preliminary tally had committed an error in the count. But Jorge Aranda,
one of the institute's citizen-counselors played down the issue, saying that there had simply been an error calculating percentages, and the numbers
themselves were not in question.
Oscar Vega, who headed the PAN's gubernatorial campaign, said the party has copies of all the result sheets from the state's 4,230 precincts, and
these show the PAN's candidate is in the lead. "There is no technical failure," Vega said, blasting the institute's president for showing partiality
to the PRI. "He never stopped working for Castro Trenti during the entire campaign," Vega said.
If borne out by the final results, the PAN's victory in Baja California, is not just a state victory. It gives an important boost to the national
party, said George Grayson, a professor at William & Mary University and longtime student of Mexican politics. While the PAN "is still on life
support, they're not flatlining," he said.
Analysts say the results in Baja California can affect the balance of power in the PAN's top echelons, between Ernesto Cordero, an influential PAN
senator, and Gustavo Madero, the party's national president. The two have clashed openly over the issue of collaborating with Mexican president
Enrique Peña Nieto on energy and fiscal reforms. The PAN's apparent gubernatorial victory strengthens Madero's position, analysts say, and would in
turn fortify the pact signed by Mexico's political parties to work together on passing the reforms.
On Sunday, voters interviewed in eastern Tijuana said more immediate matters were on their minds as they cast their ballots - issues such as crime,
jobs, education for their children. Francisco Espinosa, 41, owner of a small construction business, said he cast his vote in for PAN candidates with
little enthusiasm. "I think we've seen a little bit of change," under PAN, he said, adding that he had no faith in the PRI.
Rafael Rodríguez García, 42, a head of security at a company, said crime was the main topic, and he though the PRI candidate would be best suited to
tackle the issue. During Baja California's last gubernatorial election, in 2007, Rodríguez supported the PAN, but this time he switched. "I'm giving
them the opportunity, and if they don't carry out their promises, we'll see next time," he said."
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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