AVAAZ PETITION
Click here to read more about it and sign:
www.avaaz.org
México City, July 5th, 2012
To the International Community
As the preliminary results of Mexico’s recent Presidential Election were announced by the country’s electoral authorities, we have continued to see a wide range of reports by the independent press, the independent electoral observers, the social media and the civil movements regarding serious irregularities in Mexico’s electoral process—truly concerning inconsistencies that highlight an electoral emergency.
We have started a petition to demand transparent election results, please sign it!
Click here to read more about it and sign: www.avaaz.org
Beginning with early reports by independent media such as the Guardian that unveiled the extended manipulation of the electorate by the Mexican television networks in favor of Enrique Peña Nieto, the Presidential candidate of the PRI (Revolutionary Institutional Party), the entire electoral process and the polls on July 1st were marred by a wide array of fraudulent electoral practices. With money from unknown sources, sums that well beyond exceed all legal spending limits were used by the PRI to purchase votes from some of Mexico’s most vulnerable portion of the electorate—millions of individuals living well beyond the poverty line. Offering packages of food and international calling cards that were promised to become exchange cards for a myriad of public services if the PRI candidate was elected, millions were bought off or coerced by the PRI agents all around the country.
Despite the growing evidence of electoral criminal activity, on the night of July 1st the television networks, most of the media and the Mexican government coalesced in misrepresenting the voting preliminary results and exit polls; staging a public spectacle that granted Peña Nieto a narrow victory of 6% over leftist candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador. Even with less than 10% of the votes counted, this announcement was quickly accepted and dissiminated widely as the months leading up to the election had created conditions for an expected Peña Nieto win as false public polls were published in media outlets that gave Peña Nieto a lead of over 15 points.
According to electoral laws and procedures, the electoral process in Mexico is far from finished: the votes are yet to be officially counted and reviewed, and due legal process regarding inquiries and investigations about irregularities and fraud has not even started.
On July 4th, Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) announced reports of irregularities in 77% of voting stations. According to electoral law, 20% of proven irregularities is enough to invalidate the election results. Today, votes are being counted again. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that this will be a fair and transparent process given the disastrous track record of corruption and collusion between the PRI and the IFE.
Unfortunately, the levels at which electoral fraud reaches is all the way to the top. Individual citizens selling their vote is really a small matter in the context of electoral fraud…shameful and terrible, but not definitive. The real violence against democracy comes directly from the institutions responsible for being the referees (The IFE and TRIFE) both these agencies are colluded with the PRI party. It was just revealed today that the head of the IFE (Leonardo Valdes) is one of the leading contributors to the PRI. The head of the TRIFE has already advanced that any legal claim brought by the opponent candidate will not prevail. There have been thousands of photos of the polling booth results compared with what the PREP reported in their database, and in a systematic way the results have been changed in favor of the PRI candidate. These photos were taken by citizens precisely in advance of a possibility that the IFE might try this tactic. All this leading to the unmistakable conclusion of voter fraud at the highest level.
The Federal Electoral Tribunal must be made accountable. It must be objective and unbiased in its evaluation of the extensive evidence that proves illegalities during the election process. Both the independent electoral observers like Alianza Cìvica, and the opposition have denounced the unreliability and manipulation of the polls. The #YoSoy132 Student Movement has been constantly demonstrating in the streets calling the population to resist yet another case of electoral fraud.
The people of Mexico have been denied their right to a democratic and equitable electoral process, and need international media and foreign governments to stop contributing to the simulation of democracy. We call the international public to please review the evidence of electoral fraud in the independent press and in social media sites created by various civic movements and to call for a fair and accountable investigation regarding the irregularities of Mexico’s July 1st, 2012 elections. The promotion and preservation of Democracy and the rule of law in Mexico is much more than a localized issue, it is an issue of global justice and human rights.
Please help defend the electoral rights of the Mexican people! Demand the electoral authorities review the polls according to the law and to control the attempts of the government and the media to endorse a result that is stained with fraudulent practices and that has not been fully determined legally.
Please sign this petition!
Click here to read more about it and sign: www.avaaz.org
Thanks.
Check below for a few relevant news links. Thanks.
The Guardian 1
The Guardian 2
DW
Reuters
Washington Post
BBC News
CBS News
