Mexican general election, 2006
Encyclopedia
A general election was held in Mexico
on Sunday, July 2, 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the federal level:
Several local ballots
were also held on the same day, most notably:
after a highly controversial post-electoral process.
Eight political parties participated in the 2006 presidential election; five of them joined forces in two different electoral coalitions.
Competition was fierce, with the National Action Party
(PAN) eager to hold on to the presidency for a second period, the Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI) equally keen to regain the office it lost in the 2000 election
for the first time in 71 years (then in coalition with the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico
), and the Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD) (then in coalition with Convergence
and the Labor Party
) believing itself to have a good chance to win after disappointments in the two previous elections.
(IFE) announced the final vote count in the 2006 presidential election, resulting in a narrow margin of 0.58 percentage points of victory for Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (PAN). Calderon's victory was confirmed by the Federal courts on September 5, 2006, and he was declared President-elect of Mexico. However, Andrés Manuel López Obrador
(PRD), and his party, alleged irregularities in over 30% of the country's polling stations, and still after an unsuccessful judicial appeal of election results the PRD continued to call for street protests.details
, or 0.3% of the vote. The IFE further declared that the official count, which began on Wednesday, July 5, 2006, was to determine which candidate will be recognized as president elect.
Nevertheless, front-running presidential candidates Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (PAN) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador
(PRD) declared themselves the winners, basing their speeches on a number of private exit-polls
, some quoted and some not quoted, that gave a lead within the margin of error. PAN chairman Manuel Espino Barrientos
requested that IFE declare a winner by the night of July 3, 2006.
Preliminary results clearly showed that PRI-PVEM candidate Roberto Madrazo
did not have a realistic chance of winning the presidency. Those results also showed that the smaller parties (Nueva Alianza
and Alternativa Socialdemócrata y Campesina) would retain their registration.
The so-called "foreign vote", whereby for the first time Mexican citizens living abroad were allowed to vote, albeit solely in the presidential contest, totalled only slightly more than 32,000 voters. The overall turn-out for this election was approximately 59% of the eligible voters.
This point was made repeatedly by IFE President Ugalde
in his official statements as the 2006 electoral process unfolded.
The use of the PREP has been criticized because its data has been used by one candidate to proclaim his victory and by the other as supposed evidence of fraud. However, the PREP tends to predict the winner accurately when the difference between candidates is more than 1% (a condition that was not met in this election).
IFE information coordinator René Miranda dismissed PRD allegations that the changes in PREP's numbers were statistically improbable, saying the PREP was used objectively and impartially to "reflect the reality of the country".
The district committee results, along with the ballots, were then transferred to the IFE in Mexico City
, which resulted in the running total shown below. Early returns favored López Obrador, but by 04:07 Mexico City time, Calderón overtook him.
By 07:45, Calderón was leading by approximately 0.33% of the vote.
The volatility in the vote count was not unexpected. From the beginning, the IFE stated that running totals should not be construed as a trend, and that the official result would be released only when all polling stations had been counted. Several northern states, which strongly favored the PAN party in the PREP results, were slow in counting their ballots. This delay was at least partially attributable to the double-checking of district station totals with the actual ballot counts,
that any political party may ask for under Mexican law.
On 6 July, having narrowly lost the preliminary official count, López Obrador declared his intent
to challenge the results before the Federal Electoral Tribunal
(TEPJF), and demand a full recount of all ballots in Mexico City. On 8 July, his supporters met at Mexico City's Zócalo square to start what Obrador called "the defense of the popular vote". The PRD also made a presentation on alleged election irregularities, including (as reported in La Jornada
), allegations that around 7:00 PM, the IFE's running scoreboard vote tally blinked zero for all candidates for a period of 4 minutes.
The election-inspired protests were largely peaceful, and according to former IFE president José Woldenberg
, well within the law. However some unions and PRD supporters called for "civil resistance" if the courts decided to ratify Calderón's victory. Some, like editorialist Armando Fuentes Aguirre, expressed concern that this could lead to armed conflict.
On 5 September 2006 the Federal Electoral Court declared Calderón the definitive winner.
The final vote tally of the top two candidates was Calderón 35.89% (15,000,284 votes), López Obrador 35.31% (14,756,350 votes), a difference of 243,934 (or 0.58%) votes.
Election monitors from the European Union
stated on 8 July that they found no irregularities that could have affected the transparency of the results and that could have impacted the results. Other election monitors found many examples of fraud and irregularities and demanded a full recount . See also: Mexican general election 2006 controversies
Earlier media reports had indicated that in two separate incidents, one in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl
and one in Xalapa
, used ballots and other electoral materials were found in rubbish dumps. Reforma later reported that this supposed electoral material was found to be photocopies and did not influence the election. Al Giordano
, though, in a July 8 Narco News
article, has a La Jornada photo of three completed color ballots found in a Mexico City trash can.
ahead, Andrés Manuel López Obrador
stated that he and his party, the PRD
, would fight for a "vote-by-vote" general recount.
He presented nine boxes and 900 pages of supposed evidence alleging mathematical electoral irregularities in 50,000 polling places to the Federal Electoral Tribunal
(TEPJF). In addition, he claimed that in areas with large numbers of López Obrador supporters, election officials nullified 900,000 votes.
López Obrador and his supporters began organizing mass protests, marches, and civil disobedience, culminating in a massive rally in Mexico City
's historic Zócalo
on 30 July 2006. Estimates of the crowd at the rally range from 500,000 to 3,000,000 supporters. Additionally, López Obrador's campaign has set up plantones, or encampments, inside the Zócalo and along Paseo de la Reforma
, one of Mexico City
's main arteries, for 47 days and slowing traffic for hours. The encampents were widely unpopular, as 65% of inhabitants in Mexico City opposed them.
On Saturday, 5 August, the TEPJF met in public session to decide the outcome of López Obrador's request for a recount. The seven magistrates voted unanimously that there was only sufficient legal justification to order the recount of 11,839 ballot boxes in 155 districts (9.2% of the total), thus rejecting López Obrador's public demand that all votes and ballot boxes be recounted. http://www.jornada.unam.mx:3128/solo-procede-el-recuento-en-11-839-casillas-y-no-en-la-totalidad-tepjf The Tribunal based its decision of a partial recount on its finding that, despite publicly demanding a vote by vote general recount, López Obrador's party only presented legal claims to less than 44,000 polling stations, or less than 34%. Therefore, legally, only those 44,000 polling stations were deemed controversial by the TEPJF. The Tribunal ruled that the non-controversial votes should not be recounted, because "the certainty asked by the Coalition (of López Obrador's party) is tied to the respect of the citizen counts in non-controversial polling stations". However, the Tribunal did certify that principles of certainty in the elections called for a justified recount in some of the controversial stations, as irregularities were found.
In the western state of Jalisco
alone, 2,705 ballot boxes (33% of the state's total) will be recounted due to "evident mathematical errors". The state with the highest percentage of ballot boxes to be reopened is Aguascalientes
with 436 or 35% of its 1,226 total ballot boxes. Other states with a high percentage of ballot boxes authorized to be opened include:
Tamaulipas
, 942 ballot boxes (or 23.7% of total ballot boxes); Campeche
, 170 (18.3%); Chihuahua, 727 (15%); Durango
, 344 (15.4%); Nuevo León
, 508 (10%); San Luis Potosí
, 495 (16%); Sinaloa
, 334 (7.7%); Yucatán
, 228 (10.5%); Zacatecas
, 221 (9.23%); Querétaro
, 9.4%.
States with small percentages include: Chiapas
, 81 ballot boxes (1.6%); Distrito Federal, 227 (1.85%); Estado de México, 362 (2.33%); Michoacán
, 300 (5.5%); Morelos
, 124 (6%); Puebla
, 194 (3.22%); Veracruz
, 396 (6.56%); and Quintana Roo
, 10 (0.8%).
The recount commenced on Wednesday, 9 August, (CBC) (VOA) and concluded on Sunday, 13 August. Only after calculated the recounted votes will the TEPJF declare the candidate with the most votes as president-elect.
On Friday, August 11, both disputing parties held press conferences, in which, despite the TEPJF's insistence that no recount results would be released until Sunday, each provided their own internal figures based on their observers in the recount. These figures clashed dramatically; according to the PAN, 75% of the votes had been recounted and the results confirmed that the initial count was "perfect", with fewer than three errors per ballot box and no systemic bias
. (This is the message that most of the press reported, although others reported that the "75% without errors" figure was out of the completed, not the total, recount; still, the figures were hard to square with Coalition claims.) The Coalition claimed that only 60% of the recount was complete, and that in this recount their party had gained an average of 29 votes per ballot box. (Again, this was the message in most of the press, though other press outlets seemed to imply that the Coalition claims included lost or excess ballots as well as miscounted ones.). http://www.proceso.com.mx/noticia.html?nid=43016&cat=2
On August 28, the TEPJF announced the results of the partial recount, subtracting 81,080 votes for Calderón, 76,897 votes for López Obrador, 63,114 for Roberto Madrazo, 5,962 for Patricia Mercado, 2,743 for Roberto Campa, and 7,940 for the remaining candidates. A total of 237,736 votes were annulled out of the approximately 4 million votes recounted. Than means around 6% of the recounted votes were annulled.
Despite the Tribunal's ruling, and despite the ruling being based on his party's decision of not contesting all polls judicially, López Obrador continues to demand the "vote-by-vote" general recount, promising to continue civil disobedience and sit-ins. He was quoted as saying, "We don't want a portion of democracy. We want 100% democracy." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5251252.stm
A day before the end of the recount, López Obrador's coalition threatened with national mobilizations to prevent the "imposition" of Calderón, if the PAN candidate was confirmed winner of the election. http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/368336.html
system for presidential elections, and general clarifications in the electoral law (e.g., clarifying the grounds for requesting a recount and for the annulling of the election).
A November 24, 2006 article by The Herald Mexico
reports: "All of Mexico's major parties have called for reforms to electoral laws, including clearer limits on funding, greater transparency on campaign spending and a shorter campaign period."
The article also reports: "The EU mission, headed by Spanish Deputy José Ignacio Salafranca
, said on Thursday that a runoff election would help the nation's electoral system, especially following results as close as this year's, when Felipe Calderón beat Andrés Manuel López Obrador by less than a percentage point. In a news conference, Salafranca said that while a second round would be expensive, it would give 'greater democratic legitimacy' to the result."
A non-registered candidate, Víctor González Torres
(nicknamed "Dr. Simi" after the mascot of his national drugstore franchise) made a massive marketing campaign to enter the election, in spite of not being registered as an official candidate, and ran as a write-in candidate
. His franchise slogan is "The same only cheaper", but his campaign one is "To serve God and the people of Mexico". Ironically, he has frequently stressed the fact that he pays all of his own campaign expenses, thus being the "cheapest" candidate. He was not considered a formal candidate but many press sources still publish his sayings and complaints against IFE, while some sources consider him a sort of "comic relief".
s in the run-up to the election showed López Obrador and Calderón neck and neck. The last polls conducted before the polling blackout that begins eight days before the election all showed López Obrador and Calderón tied with the results within the margins of error. Both Reforma
and El Universal
newspapers, considered by many to be Mexico City
's most influential, gave López Obrador a two point edge over Calderón.
The candidates of the smaller parties also gained ground at the expense of Roberto Madrazo and López Obrador. The last poll from El Universal showed Patricia Mercado
of Social Democratic and Farmer Alternative had gained enough support for her party to retain its registry. In the latest Zogby poll, Madrazo, however, trailed the leader Calderón by only 8 points and was only 4 points behind López Obrador.
Averaging the last ten polls conducted before the polling blackout (between 20 June and 23 June), López Obrador edged out Calderón by a razor-thin half percentage point with 35.1%. Calderón had 34.6% and Madrazo came in third with 26%.
s, the total value of assets of each candidate follows at an exchange rate
of 10.62 pesos to one United States dollar
(Source: Banamex):
The silla vacía (Spanish for "empty chair") became the topic of political commentary shows and the press. Excélsior
called the empty chair a "double-edged sword" coinciding with other publications and TV shows that leaving the empty chair could be construed as an insult to the audience and an attack to López Obrador. However, by the date of the debates, the statistical tendency in many polls had confirmed Calderón at the second spot and López Obrador still with a single digit advantage over him.
After the first debate some political commentators, media outlets, and polls indicated that Calderón was seen as the winner of the debate, Mercado as the pleasant surprise of the night. and a nervous Madrazo as the worst performer of the night. However, political analysts also said that the debate was unnecessarily full of promises and personal attacks. Analysts considered that López Obrador was negatively affected by his absence and polls later confirmed Calderón having replaced López Obrador as the leading candidate.
A second debate took place on 6 June of the same year, from 20:30 to 22:30, Central Time, with the confirmed presence of all candidates, including López Obrador. Media outlets have given results to telephone polls applied post-debate showing a mixed tendency. Most, like Reforma and Presente, gave Felipe Calderón the lead, but a few, like Diario Monitor, gave it to Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
However, the rise of López Obrador in voter preference polls since the debate seems to indicate that it was the PRD candidate who won it. One of the main causes for this victory may have been the Hildebrando accusation that López Obrador made during the debate.
Before the debate, Carlos Ahumada
's wife threatened to release tapes involving allies of López Obrador in suspected acts of corruption, but the release was cancelled due to an attempted murder which is still under investigation. (See: Videoscandals).
Victor González Torres, a national pharmacy entrepreneur nicknamed "Dr. Simi", declared himself a non-registered write-in candidate
and tried to enter the building where the debate was to take place. González Torres demanded to be allowed participation in the debate, but he was not allowed to enter the building where he made the demand. He even brought his own chair. Candidates with no political parties are not permitted to compete in elections under Mexican law, and votes for all write-in candidates are counted together, regardless of which write-in candidate the vote was cast.
and lower
houses of Congress
.
In the current session of Congress, no party holds a majority.
Preliminary results below are as of 3 July 06:41 UTC.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
on Sunday, July 2, 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the federal level:
- A new President of the RepublicPresident of MexicoThe President of the United Mexican States is the head of state and government of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces...
to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Vicente FoxVicente FoxVicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...
(ineligible for re-election under the 1917 ConstitutionConstitution of MexicoThe Political Constitution of the United Mexican States is the current constitution of Mexico. It was drafted in Santiago de Querétaro, in the State of Querétaro, by a constitutional convention, during the Mexican Revolution. It was approved by the Constitutional Congress on February 5, 1917...
). - 500 members (300 by the first-past-the-postFirst-past-the-postFirst-past-the-post voting refers to an election won by the candidate with the most votes. The winning potato candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.-Overview:...
system and 200 by proportional representationProportional representationProportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
) to serve for a three-year term in the Chamber of DeputiesChamber of Deputies of MexicoThe Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico's bicameral legislature. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Articles 50 to 70 of the current constitution.-Composition:The Chamber of Deputies is composed of one federal...
. - 128 members (three per stateStates of MexicoThe United Mexican States is a federal republic formed by 32 federal entities .According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free and sovereign. Each state has their own congress and constitution, while the Federal District has only limited autonomy with a local Congress...
by first-past-the-post and 32 by proportional representation from national party lists) to serve six-year terms in the SenateSenate of MexicoThe Senate of the Republic, constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:...
. In each state, two first-past-the-post seats are allocated to the party with the largest share of the vote, and the remaining seat is given to the first runner-up.
Several local ballots
2006 Mexican elections
A number of elections on the federal and local level took place in Mexico during 2006.-Federal election:A general election was held on Sunday, July 2, 2006...
were also held on the same day, most notably:
- The election of a new Head of GovernmentHead of Government of the Federal DistrictThe Head of Government wields executive power in the Mexican Federal District.The Head of Government serves a six-year term, running concurrently with that of the President of the Republic....
and new Legislative AssemblyLegislative Assembly of the Federal DistrictThe Legislative Assembly of the Federal District is the legislative branch of government of the Mexican Federal District. Between 1988 and 1993, it was known as the Assembly of Representatives of the Federal District , during which period it had reduced powers with respect to the current...
of the Federal District. See: 2006 Mexican Federal District election2006 Mexican Federal District electionElections in the Mexican Federal District were held on Sunday, 2 July 2006. Voters went the polls to elect, on the local level:*A new Head of Government of the Federal District, to serve a six-year term, replacing current incumbent Alejandro Encinas....
. - Gubernatorial elections in the statesStates of MexicoThe United Mexican States is a federal republic formed by 32 federal entities .According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free and sovereign. Each state has their own congress and constitution, while the Federal District has only limited autonomy with a local Congress...
of GuanajuatoGuanajuatoGuanajuato officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 46 municipalities and its capital city is Guanajuato....
, JaliscoJaliscoJalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
and MorelosMorelosMorelos officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 33 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca....
. - Municipal and local congressional elections in those three states and in CampecheCampecheCampeche is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in Southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the states of Yucatán to the north east, Quintana Roo to the east, and Tabasco to the south west...
, ColimaColimaColima is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima....
, Nuevo LeónNuevo LeónNuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
, QuerétaroQuerétaroQuerétaro officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro de Arteaga is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities and its capital city is Santiago de Querétaro....
, and SonoraSonoraSonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
. San Luis PotosíSan Luis PotosíSan Luis Potosí officially Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí....
also elected a new local congress.
Presidential election
On September 5, 2006, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa was declared President-Elect by the Federal Electoral TribunalFederal Electoral Tribunal
The Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary is a venue within the judiciary of Mexico that specialises in electoral matters. Among its functions are resolving disputes arising within federal elections and certifying the validity of those elections, including those of the President of the...
after a highly controversial post-electoral process.
Eight political parties participated in the 2006 presidential election; five of them joined forces in two different electoral coalitions.
Competition was fierce, with the National Action Party
National Action Party (Mexico)
The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...
(PAN) eager to hold on to the presidency for a second period, the Institutional Revolutionary Party
Institutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution , making Mexico one of the few...
(PRI) equally keen to regain the office it lost in the 2000 election
Mexican general election, 2000
General elections were held in Mexico on 6 July 2000. The presidential elections were won by Vicente Fox of the Alliance for Change, who received 43.4% of the vote, the first time the opposition had won an election since the Mexican Revolution...
for the first time in 71 years (then in coalition with the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico
The Ecologist Green Party of Mexico is one of the six political parties to have representation in the Mexican Congress. The party's congressional strength currently stands at 17 deputies and five senators .-Elections 2000:...
), and the Party of the Democratic Revolution
Party of the Democratic Revolution
The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
(PRD) (then in coalition with Convergence
Convergence (Mexico)
Convergence is a political party in Mexico. It was previously known as Convergence for Democracy but the party assembly decided, in August 2002, to adopt the shorter form of its name.Convergence was founded as a "national political grouping" in 1997...
and the Labor Party
Labor Party (Mexico)
The Labor Party is a nationally recognized political party in Mexico. It was founded on December 8, 1990. The party is currently led by Alberto Anaya....
) believing itself to have a good chance to win after disappointments in the two previous elections.
Preliminary results
On July 6, 2006 the Federal Electoral InstituteFederal Electoral Institute
The Federal Electoral Institute is an autonomous, public organization responsible for organizing federal elections in Mexico, that is, those related to the election of the President of the United Mexican States and to the election of the members of the Lower and Upper Chambers that constitute the ...
(IFE) announced the final vote count in the 2006 presidential election, resulting in a narrow margin of 0.58 percentage points of victory for Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (PAN). Calderon's victory was confirmed by the Federal courts on September 5, 2006, and he was declared President-elect of Mexico. However, Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
(PRD), and his party, alleged irregularities in over 30% of the country's polling stations, and still after an unsuccessful judicial appeal of election results the PRD continued to call for street protests.details
Mexican general election 2006 controversies
The Mexican general election of July 2, 2006 was one of the most hotly contested elections in Mexican history and as such, the results were controversial...
Quick count
The IFE declared at 11:00 pm on July 2, 2006 that the statistics yielded by the official quick count indicated that the presidential election was too close to call, meaning that the difference between the two front-runners was smaller than their margin of errorMargin of error
The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey's results. The larger the margin of error, the less faith one should have that the poll's reported results are close to the "true" figures; that is, the figures for the whole population...
, or 0.3% of the vote. The IFE further declared that the official count, which began on Wednesday, July 5, 2006, was to determine which candidate will be recognized as president elect.
Nevertheless, front-running presidential candidates Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (PAN) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
(PRD) declared themselves the winners, basing their speeches on a number of private exit-polls
Exit poll
An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for. A similar poll conducted before actual...
, some quoted and some not quoted, that gave a lead within the margin of error. PAN chairman Manuel Espino Barrientos
Manuel Espino Barrientos
Manuel Espino Barrientos He was the 18th President of National Action Party On November 11, 2006 he was elected president of the Christian Democrat Organization of America....
requested that IFE declare a winner by the night of July 3, 2006.
Preliminary results clearly showed that PRI-PVEM candidate Roberto Madrazo
Roberto Madrazo
Roberto Madrazo Pintado is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party . He was the candidate of the alliance between his party and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico in the 2006 Mexican presidential election.Madrazo was born in Villahermosa, Tabasco to Carlos A....
did not have a realistic chance of winning the presidency. Those results also showed that the smaller parties (Nueva Alianza
New Alliance Party (Mexico)
The New Alliance Party is one of the newest political parties in Mexico.Its creation was proposed by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación , the largest trade union in Latin America, led by Elba Esther Gordillo, the controversial former general secretary of the Institutional...
and Alternativa Socialdemócrata y Campesina) would retain their registration.
The so-called "foreign vote", whereby for the first time Mexican citizens living abroad were allowed to vote, albeit solely in the presidential contest, totalled only slightly more than 32,000 voters. The overall turn-out for this election was approximately 59% of the eligible voters.
Preliminary Electoral Results Program
The Preliminary Electoral Results Program (Programa de Resultados Electorales Preliminares, or PREP) is mandated by law to provide a quick estimate of the electoral results, but it has no authority to determine the outcome of the election.This point was made repeatedly by IFE President Ugalde
Luis Carlos Ugalde
Luis Carlos Ugalde Ramírez is a Mexican scholar who served as president of the Federal Electoral Institute from 2003 to 2007.-Education:...
in his official statements as the 2006 electoral process unfolded.
The use of the PREP has been criticized because its data has been used by one candidate to proclaim his victory and by the other as supposed evidence of fraud. However, the PREP tends to predict the winner accurately when the difference between candidates is more than 1% (a condition that was not met in this election).
IFE information coordinator René Miranda dismissed PRD allegations that the changes in PREP's numbers were statistically improbable, saying the PREP was used objectively and impartially to "reflect the reality of the country".
Official count
After the PREP was concluded on 4 July, the official district-based counts were begun on Wednesday 5 July 2006. In accordance with the Federal Code of Electoral Procedures and Institutions (COFIPE), each of Mexico's 300 congressional districts tabulated the votes recorded on the tally sheets (the "actas") for each voting precinct in their district. "In some cases, such as when a tally sheet was illegible, the sealed ballot packets were opened and recounted." All under the eyes of any election observers that any political party cared to provide.The district committee results, along with the ballots, were then transferred to the IFE in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, which resulted in the running total shown below. Early returns favored López Obrador, but by 04:07 Mexico City time, Calderón overtook him.
By 07:45, Calderón was leading by approximately 0.33% of the vote.
that any political party may ask for under Mexican law.
On 6 July, having narrowly lost the preliminary official count, López Obrador declared his intent
to challenge the results before the Federal Electoral Tribunal
Federal Electoral Tribunal
The Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary is a venue within the judiciary of Mexico that specialises in electoral matters. Among its functions are resolving disputes arising within federal elections and certifying the validity of those elections, including those of the President of the...
(TEPJF), and demand a full recount of all ballots in Mexico City. On 8 July, his supporters met at Mexico City's Zócalo square to start what Obrador called "the defense of the popular vote". The PRD also made a presentation on alleged election irregularities, including (as reported in La Jornada
La Jornada
La Jornada is one of Mexico City's leading daily newspapers. It was established in 1984 by Carlos Payán Velver. The current editor is Carmen Lira Saade...
), allegations that around 7:00 PM, the IFE's running scoreboard vote tally blinked zero for all candidates for a period of 4 minutes.
The election-inspired protests were largely peaceful, and according to former IFE president José Woldenberg
José Woldenberg
José Woldenberg Karakowski is a Mexican sociologist. He was the first president of the Federal Electoral Institute and serves as the current director of Nexos magazine....
, well within the law. However some unions and PRD supporters called for "civil resistance" if the courts decided to ratify Calderón's victory. Some, like editorialist Armando Fuentes Aguirre, expressed concern that this could lead to armed conflict.
On 5 September 2006 the Federal Electoral Court declared Calderón the definitive winner.
The final vote tally of the top two candidates was Calderón 35.89% (15,000,284 votes), López Obrador 35.31% (14,756,350 votes), a difference of 243,934 (or 0.58%) votes.
Election monitors from the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
stated on 8 July that they found no irregularities that could have affected the transparency of the results and that could have impacted the results. Other election monitors found many examples of fraud and irregularities and demanded a full recount . See also: Mexican general election 2006 controversies
Mexican general election 2006 controversies
The Mexican general election of July 2, 2006 was one of the most hotly contested elections in Mexican history and as such, the results were controversial...
Earlier media reports had indicated that in two separate incidents, one in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl
Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl
Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, or more commonly Ciudad Neza, is a city and municipality of Mexico State adjacent to the northeast corner of Mexico's Federal District: it is thus part of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. It was named after Nezahualcoyotl, the Acolhua poet and king of nearby Texcoco, and...
and one in Xalapa
Xalapa
Xalapa-Enríquez, commonly Xalapa or Jalapa, is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the year 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879 and the municipality of which it serves as municipal seat reported a population of...
, used ballots and other electoral materials were found in rubbish dumps. Reforma later reported that this supposed electoral material was found to be photocopies and did not influence the election. Al Giordano
Al Giordano
Al Giordano is a journalist who operates the Narco News Bulletin, reporting on the War on Drugs, the political blog The Field, reporting on American politics, and the School of Authentic Journalism...
, though, in a July 8 Narco News
Narco News
Narco News is an online newspaper that covers the "War on Drugs” and social movements throughout the Americas. Its articles are available in English and Spanish, with some translations in Italian, French, Portuguese, and German. Narco News is funded by the Fund for Authentic Journalism.The founder...
article, has a La Jornada photo of three completed color ballots found in a Mexico City trash can.
Results by state
Based on the official results of the Federal Electoral InstituteFederal Electoral Institute
The Federal Electoral Institute is an autonomous, public organization responsible for organizing federal elections in Mexico, that is, those related to the election of the President of the United Mexican States and to the election of the members of the Lower and Upper Chambers that constitute the ...
| State States of Mexico The United Mexican States is a federal republic formed by 32 federal entities .According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free and sovereign. Each state has their own congress and constitution, while the Federal District has only limited autonomy with a local Congress... |
Calderón Felipe Calderón Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012... |
López Obrador Andrés Manuel López Obrador Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good... |
Madrazo Roberto Madrazo Roberto Madrazo Pintado is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party . He was the candidate of the alliance between his party and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico in the 2006 Mexican presidential election.Madrazo was born in Villahermosa, Tabasco to Carlos A.... |
Mercado Patricia Mercado Dora Patricia Mercado Castro is aMexican feminist politician. She is a founder, former president and the 2006 presidential candidate of the extinct Socialdemocratic Party .... |
Campa Roberto Campa Roberto Rafael Campa Cifrián is a Mexican lawyer and politician who was the New Alliance presidential candidate in the 2006 elections... |
Write-in | None |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aguascalientes Aguascalientes Aguascalientes is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 11 municipalities and its capital city is Aguascalientes.... |
193,588 | 89,920 | 97,935 | 16,275 | 5,597 | 3,335 | 7,669 |
| Baja California Baja California Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North... |
450,186 | 224,275 | 203,233 | 35,917 | 13,522 | 6,488 | 17,099 |
| Baja California Sur Baja California Sur Baja California Sur , is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state on October 8, 1974, the area was known as the South Territory of Baja California. It has an area of , or 3.57% of the land mass of Mexico and comprises... |
62,127 | 77,875 | 29,874 | 5,470 | 1,475 | 1,225 | 2,801 |
| Campeche Campeche Campeche is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in Southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the states of Yucatán to the north east, Quintana Roo to the east, and Tabasco to the south west... |
99,526 | 101,192 | 87,412 | 4,756 | 8,470 | 1,652 | 9,514 |
| Chiapas Chiapas Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las... |
215,358 | 551,749 | 427,351 | 15,065 | 7,378 | 8,395 | 47,327 |
| Chihuahua | 523,914 | 212,069 | 341,916 | 31,414 | 20,375 | 6,540 | 25,405 |
| Coahuila Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico... |
400,894 | 225,117 | 245,960 | 26,450 | 8,412 | 8,192 | 14,919 |
| Colima Colima Colima is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima.... |
107,880 | 61,434 | 76,586 | 5,284 | 1,567 | 784 | 4,591 |
| Distrito Federal | 1,325,474 | 2,813,112 | 413,644 | 175,517 | 27,152 | 14,833 | 69,553 |
| Durango Durango Durango officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is located in Northwest Mexico. With a population of 1,632,934, it has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja... |
255,229 | 128,881 | 153,990 | 11,188 | 5,769 | 6,113 | 10,873 |
| Guanajuato Guanajuato Guanajuato officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 46 municipalities and its capital city is Guanajuato.... |
1,155,403 | 301,463 | 368,789 | 49,753 | 18,611 | 17,136 | 49,896 |
| Guerrero Guerrero Guerrero officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Guerrero is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo.... |
160,253 | 510,217 | 263,035 | 16,809 | 10,493 | 7,132 | 24,172 |
| Hidalgo | 251,772 | 385,750 | 235,926 | 25,702 | 15,360 | 6,444 | 24,636 |
| Jalisco Jalisco Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states... |
1,435,334 | 559,266 | 705,925 | 93,836 | 37,739 | 16,537 | 61,729 |
| México Mexico (state) México , officially: Estado Libre y Soberano de México is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of the United Mexican States. It is divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Toluca de Lerdo.... |
1,771,515 | 2,469,093 | 1,033,110 | 215,857 | 61,494 | 48,075 | 101,188 |
| Michoacán Michoacán Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia... |
515,600 | 615,535 | 283,157 | 29,951 | 8,229 | 10,780 | 31,845 |
| Morelos Morelos Morelos officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 33 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca.... |
226,340 | 312,815 | 111,118 | 24,736 | 12,129 | 6,901 | 15,062 |
| Nayarit Nayarit Nayarit officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its capital city is Tepic.It is located in Western Mexico... |
69,097 | 152,999 | 123,284 | 7,730 | 3,840 | 1,919 | 6,978 |
| Nuevo León Nuevo León Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S... |
865,006 | 282,384 | 488,402 | 51,760 | 31,112 | 11,343 | 39,211 |
| Oaxaca Oaxaca Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions... |
226,304 | 620,062 | 428,026 | 19,482 | 5,620 | 7,672 | 42,017 |
| Puebla Puebla Puebla officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 217 municipalities and its capital city is Puebla.... |
743,831 | 639,659 | 460,183 | 50,234 | 20,418 | 16,227 | 53,614 |
| Querétaro Querétaro Querétaro officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro de Arteaga is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities and its capital city is Santiago de Querétaro.... |
322,975 | 160,383 | 133,188 | 16,536 | 6,028 | 5,823 | 15,451 |
| Quintana Roo Quintana Roo Quintana Roo officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 10 municipalities and its capital city is Chetumal.... |
111,485 | 147,839 | 105,086 | 8,801 | 2,768 | 2,729 | 7,014 |
| San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí officially Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí.... |
462,329 | 204,983 | 207,602 | 23,648 | 8,360 | 7,470 | 37,332 |
| Sinaloa Sinaloa Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales.... |
363,461 | 301,709 | 263,553 | 20,620 | 6,717 | 5,397 | 19,227 |
| Sonora Sonora Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo.... |
468,288 | 240,114 | 175,365 | 23,187 | 6,914 | 3,724 | 16,345 |
| Tabasco Tabasco Tabasco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa.... |
31,975 | 512,743 | 344,526 | 4,261 | 1,906 | 1,582 | 14,120 |
| Tamaulipas Tamaulipas Tamaulipas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 43 municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria. The capital city was named after Guadalupe Victoria, the... |
506,177 | 324,491 | 317,849 | 25,025 | 12,424 | 15,853 | 24,103 |
| Tlaxcala Tlaxcala Tlaxcala officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala is one of the 31 states which along with the Federal District comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipalities and its capital city is Tlaxcala.... |
140,128 | 180,487 | 59,672 | 11,130 | 3,426 | 6,504 | 8,883 |
| Veracruz Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is... |
1,006,676 | 1,036,474 | 727,638 | 55,971 | 17,777 | 25,396 | 72,412 |
| Yucatán Yucatán Yucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida.... |
364,353 | 125,152 | 260,116 | 12,962 | 4,504 | 6,784 | 15,284 |
| Zacatecas Zacatecas Zacatecas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Zacatecas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas.... |
167,806 | 187,088 | 128,392 | 13,523 | 6,218 | 9,004 | 13,224 |
| Total | 15,000,284 | 14,756,350 | 9,301,441 | 1,128,850 | 401,804 | 297,989 | 904,604 |
Post-election controversy
Soon after it was clear that the official count would result with Felipe CalderónFelipe Calderón
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012...
ahead, Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
stated that he and his party, the PRD
Party of the Democratic Revolution
The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
, would fight for a "vote-by-vote" general recount.
He presented nine boxes and 900 pages of supposed evidence alleging mathematical electoral irregularities in 50,000 polling places to the Federal Electoral Tribunal
Federal Electoral Tribunal
The Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary is a venue within the judiciary of Mexico that specialises in electoral matters. Among its functions are resolving disputes arising within federal elections and certifying the validity of those elections, including those of the President of the...
(TEPJF). In addition, he claimed that in areas with large numbers of López Obrador supporters, election officials nullified 900,000 votes.
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
's historic Zócalo
Zócalo
The Zócalo is the main plaza or square in the heart of the historic center of Mexico City. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Square," and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución...
on 30 July 2006. Estimates of the crowd at the rally range from 500,000 to 3,000,000 supporters. Additionally, López Obrador's campaign has set up plantones, or encampments, inside the Zócalo and along Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma is a wide avenue that runs in a straight line, cutting diagonally across Mexico City. It was designed by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig in the 1860s and modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as Vienna's Ringstrasse or the Champs-Élysées in Paris...
, one of Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
's main arteries, for 47 days and slowing traffic for hours. The encampents were widely unpopular, as 65% of inhabitants in Mexico City opposed them.
On Saturday, 5 August, the TEPJF met in public session to decide the outcome of López Obrador's request for a recount. The seven magistrates voted unanimously that there was only sufficient legal justification to order the recount of 11,839 ballot boxes in 155 districts (9.2% of the total), thus rejecting López Obrador's public demand that all votes and ballot boxes be recounted. http://www.jornada.unam.mx:3128/solo-procede-el-recuento-en-11-839-casillas-y-no-en-la-totalidad-tepjf The Tribunal based its decision of a partial recount on its finding that, despite publicly demanding a vote by vote general recount, López Obrador's party only presented legal claims to less than 44,000 polling stations, or less than 34%. Therefore, legally, only those 44,000 polling stations were deemed controversial by the TEPJF. The Tribunal ruled that the non-controversial votes should not be recounted, because "the certainty asked by the Coalition (of López Obrador's party) is tied to the respect of the citizen counts in non-controversial polling stations". However, the Tribunal did certify that principles of certainty in the elections called for a justified recount in some of the controversial stations, as irregularities were found.
In the western state of Jalisco
Jalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
alone, 2,705 ballot boxes (33% of the state's total) will be recounted due to "evident mathematical errors". The state with the highest percentage of ballot boxes to be reopened is Aguascalientes
Aguascalientes
Aguascalientes is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 11 municipalities and its capital city is Aguascalientes....
with 436 or 35% of its 1,226 total ballot boxes. Other states with a high percentage of ballot boxes authorized to be opened include:
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 43 municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria. The capital city was named after Guadalupe Victoria, the...
, 942 ballot boxes (or 23.7% of total ballot boxes); Campeche
Campeche
Campeche is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in Southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the states of Yucatán to the north east, Quintana Roo to the east, and Tabasco to the south west...
, 170 (18.3%); Chihuahua, 727 (15%); Durango
Durango
Durango officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is located in Northwest Mexico. With a population of 1,632,934, it has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja...
, 344 (15.4%); Nuevo León
Nuevo León
Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
, 508 (10%); San Luis Potosí
San Luis Potosí
San Luis Potosí officially Estado Libre y Soberano de San Luis Potosí is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is San Luis Potosí....
, 495 (16%); Sinaloa
Sinaloa
Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales....
, 334 (7.7%); Yucatán
Yucatán
Yucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida....
, 228 (10.5%); Zacatecas
Zacatecas
Zacatecas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Zacatecas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas....
, 221 (9.23%); Querétaro
Querétaro
Querétaro officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro de Arteaga is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities and its capital city is Santiago de Querétaro....
, 9.4%.
States with small percentages include: Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
, 81 ballot boxes (1.6%); Distrito Federal, 227 (1.85%); Estado de México, 362 (2.33%); Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
, 300 (5.5%); Morelos
Morelos
Morelos officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 33 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca....
, 124 (6%); Puebla
Puebla
Puebla officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 217 municipalities and its capital city is Puebla....
, 194 (3.22%); Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
, 396 (6.56%); and Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 10 municipalities and its capital city is Chetumal....
, 10 (0.8%).
The recount commenced on Wednesday, 9 August, (CBC) (VOA) and concluded on Sunday, 13 August. Only after calculated the recounted votes will the TEPJF declare the candidate with the most votes as president-elect.
On Friday, August 11, both disputing parties held press conferences, in which, despite the TEPJF's insistence that no recount results would be released until Sunday, each provided their own internal figures based on their observers in the recount. These figures clashed dramatically; according to the PAN, 75% of the votes had been recounted and the results confirmed that the initial count was "perfect", with fewer than three errors per ballot box and no systemic bias
Systemic bias
Systemic bias is the inherent tendency of a process to favor particular outcomes. The term is a neologism that generally refers to human systems; the analogous problem in non-human systems is often called systematic bias, and leads to systematic error in measurements or estimates.-Bias in...
. (This is the message that most of the press reported, although others reported that the "75% without errors" figure was out of the completed, not the total, recount; still, the figures were hard to square with Coalition claims.) The Coalition claimed that only 60% of the recount was complete, and that in this recount their party had gained an average of 29 votes per ballot box. (Again, this was the message in most of the press, though other press outlets seemed to imply that the Coalition claims included lost or excess ballots as well as miscounted ones.). http://www.proceso.com.mx/noticia.html?nid=43016&cat=2
On August 28, the TEPJF announced the results of the partial recount, subtracting 81,080 votes for Calderón, 76,897 votes for López Obrador, 63,114 for Roberto Madrazo, 5,962 for Patricia Mercado, 2,743 for Roberto Campa, and 7,940 for the remaining candidates. A total of 237,736 votes were annulled out of the approximately 4 million votes recounted. Than means around 6% of the recounted votes were annulled.
Despite the Tribunal's ruling, and despite the ruling being based on his party's decision of not contesting all polls judicially, López Obrador continues to demand the "vote-by-vote" general recount, promising to continue civil disobedience and sit-ins. He was quoted as saying, "We don't want a portion of democracy. We want 100% democracy." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5251252.stm
A day before the end of the recount, López Obrador's coalition threatened with national mobilizations to prevent the "imposition" of Calderón, if the PAN candidate was confirmed winner of the election. http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/368336.html
Calls for electoral reform
On Thursday November 23, 2006 the European Union (EU) election observer mission presented its final report. The report was generally positive and defended the official result of the July 2 presidential election saying they "reflect[ed] the legitimate will of the Mexican people." However, the report also expressed concerns and raised several criticisms, both general and specific, of the electoral process and the election. The report includes 48 specific recommendations for future reform to "strengthen the electoral process", such as introducing random automatic recounts in the case of a close election, shortening the campaign period, considering the introduction of a two round run-offTwo-round system
The two-round system is a voting system used to elect a single winner where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate...
system for presidential elections, and general clarifications in the electoral law (e.g., clarifying the grounds for requesting a recount and for the annulling of the election).
A November 24, 2006 article by The Herald Mexico
The Herald Mexico
The Herald Mexico was a daily English language newspaper published in Mexico City, Mexico from 2004 to 2007. It was an international joint venture between The Miami Herald of Miami, Florida, United States, and El Universal, a widely circulated Spanish language newspaper also published in Mexico City...
reports: "All of Mexico's major parties have called for reforms to electoral laws, including clearer limits on funding, greater transparency on campaign spending and a shorter campaign period."
The article also reports: "The EU mission, headed by Spanish Deputy José Ignacio Salafranca
José Salafranca Sánchez-Neira
José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra is a Spanish politician and Member of the European Parliament with the People's Party, Member of the Bureau of the European People's Party and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.He is a substitute for the Committee on Constitutional...
, said on Thursday that a runoff election would help the nation's electoral system, especially following results as close as this year's, when Felipe Calderón beat Andrés Manuel López Obrador by less than a percentage point. In a news conference, Salafranca said that while a second round would be expensive, it would give 'greater democratic legitimacy' to the result."
Presidential candidates
There were five registered candidates for the 2006 presidential election:| Party/Alliance | Photo | Candidate | Slogan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Action Party National Action Party (Mexico) The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the... |
 |
Felipe Calderón Felipe Calderón Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012... |
Para que vivamos mejor "So we can live better" |
|
| Coalition for the Good of All Coalition for the Good of All The Coalition for the Good of All was a left-wing coalition created by the Party of the Democratic Revolution , Convergence and the Labor Party to support Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a candidate for the presidency of Mexico in the general election of 2006... (PRD Party of the Democratic Revolution The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International... , PT Labor Party (Mexico) The Labor Party is a nationally recognized political party in Mexico. It was founded on December 8, 1990. The party is currently led by Alberto Anaya.... , Convergence Convergence (Mexico) Convergence is a political party in Mexico. It was previously known as Convergence for Democracy but the party assembly decided, in August 2002, to adopt the shorter form of its name.Convergence was founded as a "national political grouping" in 1997... ) |
 |
Andrés Manuel López Obrador Andrés Manuel López Obrador Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good... |
Por el bien de todos, primero los pobres "For the Good of All, the poor are first" |
|
| Alliance for Mexico Alliance for Mexico The Alliance for Mexico is the name of two different multi-party electoral alliances in Mexico; one from 2000 and the other from 2006.-2000 elections:... (PRI Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution , making Mexico one of the few... , PVEM Ecologist Green Party of Mexico The Ecologist Green Party of Mexico is one of the six political parties to have representation in the Mexican Congress. The party's congressional strength currently stands at 17 deputies and five senators .-Elections 2000:... ) |
 |
Roberto Madrazo Roberto Madrazo Roberto Madrazo Pintado is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party . He was the candidate of the alliance between his party and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico in the 2006 Mexican presidential election.Madrazo was born in Villahermosa, Tabasco to Carlos A.... |
Mover a México para que las cosas se hagan "Moving Mexico to get things done" |
|
| Social Democratic and Peasant Alternative Party | Patricia Mercado Castro Patricia Mercado Dora Patricia Mercado Castro is aMexican feminist politician. She is a founder, former president and the 2006 presidential candidate of the extinct Socialdemocratic Party .... |
Palabra de mujer "A woman's word" |
||
| New Alliance Party New Alliance Party (Mexico) The New Alliance Party is one of the newest political parties in Mexico.Its creation was proposed by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación , the largest trade union in Latin America, led by Elba Esther Gordillo, the controversial former general secretary of the Institutional... |
Roberto Campa Cifrián Roberto Campa Roberto Rafael Campa Cifrián is a Mexican lawyer and politician who was the New Alliance presidential candidate in the 2006 elections... |
Uno de tres "One out of three" |
||
A non-registered candidate, Víctor González Torres
Víctor González Torres
Víctor González Torres , is a Mexican businessman, who ran as a write-in candidate in the 2006 Mexican presidential election. He is nicknamed "Dr. Simi" after the mascot of his national drugstore franchise, Farmacias Similares. Despite not being an official candidate, he made a massive marketing...
(nicknamed "Dr. Simi" after the mascot of his national drugstore franchise) made a massive marketing campaign to enter the election, in spite of not being registered as an official candidate, and ran as a write-in candidate
Write-in candidate
A write-in candidate is a candidate in an election whose name does not appear on the ballot, but for whom voters may vote nonetheless by writing in the person's name. Some states and local jurisdictions allow a voter to affix a sticker with a write-in candidate's name on it to the ballot in lieu...
. His franchise slogan is "The same only cheaper", but his campaign one is "To serve God and the people of Mexico". Ironically, he has frequently stressed the fact that he pays all of his own campaign expenses, thus being the "cheapest" candidate. He was not considered a formal candidate but many press sources still publish his sayings and complaints against IFE, while some sources consider him a sort of "comic relief".
Summary
| Candidates | Party | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felipe Calderón Felipe Calderón Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012... |
National Action Party National Action Party (Mexico) The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the... |
14,027,214 | 36.38% | ||
| Andrés Manuel López Obrador Andrés Manuel López Obrador Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good... |
Coalition for the Good of All Coalition for the Good of All The Coalition for the Good of All was a left-wing coalition created by the Party of the Democratic Revolution , Convergence and the Labor Party to support Andrés Manuel López Obrador as a candidate for the presidency of Mexico in the general election of 2006... (PRD, PT, CV) |
13,624,506 | 35.34% | ||
| Roberto Madrazo Roberto Madrazo Roberto Madrazo Pintado is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party . He was the candidate of the alliance between his party and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico in the 2006 Mexican presidential election.Madrazo was born in Villahermosa, Tabasco to Carlos A.... |
Alliance for Mexico Alliance for Mexico The Alliance for Mexico is the name of two different multi-party electoral alliances in Mexico; one from 2000 and the other from 2006.-2000 elections:... (PRI, PVEM) |
8,318,886 | 21.57% | ||
| Patricia Mercado Patricia Mercado Dora Patricia Mercado Castro is aMexican feminist politician. She is a founder, former president and the 2006 presidential candidate of the extinct Socialdemocratic Party .... |
Social Democratic and Peasant Alternative Party | 1,085,966 | 2.81% | ||
| Roberto Campa Cifrián | New Alliance New Alliance Party (Mexico) The New Alliance Party is one of the newest political parties in Mexico.Its creation was proposed by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación , the largest trade union in Latin America, led by Elba Esther Gordillo, the controversial former general secretary of the Institutional... |
384,317 | 0.99% | ||
| Write in | 281,145 | 0.72% | |||
| Blank/Invalid | 827,317 | 2.14% | |||
| Total | 38,549,351 | 100.00% | |||
| Source: Instituto Federal Electoral http://prep2006.ife.org.mx/PREP2006/prep2006.html | |||||
Polls
Opinion pollOpinion poll
An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...
s in the run-up to the election showed López Obrador and Calderón neck and neck. The last polls conducted before the polling blackout that begins eight days before the election all showed López Obrador and Calderón tied with the results within the margins of error. Both Reforma
Reforma
Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000...
and El Universal
El Universal (Mexico City)
El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution...
newspapers, considered by many to be Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
's most influential, gave López Obrador a two point edge over Calderón.
The candidates of the smaller parties also gained ground at the expense of Roberto Madrazo and López Obrador. The last poll from El Universal showed Patricia Mercado
Patricia Mercado
Dora Patricia Mercado Castro is aMexican feminist politician. She is a founder, former president and the 2006 presidential candidate of the extinct Socialdemocratic Party ....
of Social Democratic and Farmer Alternative had gained enough support for her party to retain its registry. In the latest Zogby poll, Madrazo, however, trailed the leader Calderón by only 8 points and was only 4 points behind López Obrador.
Averaging the last ten polls conducted before the polling blackout (between 20 June and 23 June), López Obrador edged out Calderón by a razor-thin half percentage point with 35.1%. Calderón had 34.6% and Madrazo came in third with 26%.
| Date | Publisher | Source | López Obrador | Calderón | Madrazo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 23, 2006 | Reforma Reforma Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000... |
http://www.presidencia.com.mx/cgi-local/encuestasmedios.pl?numero=65 | 36% | 34% | 25% |
| June 23, 2006 | El Universal El Universal (Mexico City) El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution... |
http://www.presidencia.com.mx/cgi-local/encuestasmedios.pl?numero=66 | 36% | 34% | 26% |
| June 23, 2006 | Ulises Beltran y Asociados | http://www.presidencia.com.mx/cgi-local/encuestasmedios.pl?numero=67 | 34% | 34% | 26% |
| June 22, 2006 | Milenio Diario Milenio Diario Milenio is a major national newspaper in Mexico, owned by Grupo Multimedios.It is published in 11 cities across Mexico, including Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, León, Pachuca, Puebla, Villahermosa, Tampico, Torreón, Toluca, and Xalapa... |
http://www.milenio.com/guadalajara/milenio/portada.asp | 35.4% | 30.5% | 29.6% |
| June 22, 2006 | GEA-ISA | http://www.isa.org.mx/contenido/GIMX0606bp.pdf | 36% | 38% | 23% |
| June 22, 2006 | Alducin y Asociados | http://www.presidencia.com.mx/cgi-local/encuestasmedios.pl?numero=63 | 34% | 38% | 24% |
| June 22, 2006 | Consulta Mitofsky | http://www.presidencia.com.mx/cgi-local/encuestasmedios.pl?numero=64 | 36% | 33% | 27% |
| June 21, 2006 | Indermerc | http://www.indemerc-harris.com | 33% | 32% | 28% |
| June 21, 2006 | Marketing Político | http://www.marketingpolitico.com.mx/Encuestas/Junio%202006/Encuesta%20Nacional%20Junio%202006.pdf | 34% | 37% | 26% |
| June 20, 2006 | Parametría | http://www.nuevoexcelsior.com.mx/Excelsior/macros/GenericNewsWithPhoto.jsp?contentid=4305&version=1 | 36.5% | 32.5% | 27% |
| June 19, 2006 | Zogby Zogby International IBOPE Zogby International is an international market research, opinion polling firm founded in 1984 by John Zogby. The company polls and consults for a wide spectrum of business media, government, and political groups, and conducts public opinion research in more than 70 countries... |
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-06-19-voa56.cfm | 31% | 35% | 27% |
| June 14, 2006 | Reforma Reforma Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000... |
http://www.hnpnews.com/articulo.php?idart=18204&cat=Pol%C3%ADtica | 37% | 35% | 23% |
| June 13, 2006 | Milenio Diario Milenio Diario Milenio is a major national newspaper in Mexico, owned by Grupo Multimedios.It is published in 11 cities across Mexico, including Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, León, Pachuca, Puebla, Villahermosa, Tampico, Torreón, Toluca, and Xalapa... |
http://www.omnia.com.mx/noticias/27636/chihuahua/ | 34.2% | 31% | 29.6% |
| June 13, 2006 | Consulta Mitofsky | http://www.tiempo.com.mx/not_detalle.php?id_n=8402 | 35% | 32% | 28% |
| June 12, 2006 | El Universal El Universal (Mexico City) El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution... |
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/animados/presid-jun2-06.html | 34% | 37% | 22% |
| June 11, 2006 | GEA-ISA | http://www.isa.org.mx/contenido/Gimx0606ap.pdf | 35% | 39% | 23% |
| June 6, 2006 | El Universal El Universal (Mexico City) El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution... |
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/animados/presid-jun06.html | 36% | 36% | 24% |
| June 6, 2006 | Parametría | http://www.parametria.com.mx/es_cartaext.php?id_carta=138 | 35.5% | 34.4% | 27% |
| June 5, 2006 | BGC, Beltrán y Asociados | http://www.bgc.com.mx/ | 35% | 35% | 26% |
| May 29, 2006 | Milenio Diario Milenio Diario Milenio is a major national newspaper in Mexico, owned by Grupo Multimedios.It is published in 11 cities across Mexico, including Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, León, Pachuca, Puebla, Villahermosa, Tampico, Torreón, Toluca, and Xalapa... |
http://www.milenio.com/MediaCenter/Fotos/2006/Mayo/29/herasg.jpg | 33% | 33% | 30% |
| May 29, 2006 | Consulta Mitofsky | http://www.consulta.com.mx/interiores/99_pdfs/11_elecciones_pdf/NA20060529_AsiVan_LaminasTelevisa_Noche.pdf | 34% | 34% | 28% |
| May 28, 2006 | GEA-ISA | http://www.isa.org.mx/contenido/Gimx0605p.pdf | 31% | 40% | 27% |
| May 24, 2006 | Reforma Reforma Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000... |
35% | 39% | 22% | |
| May 19, 2006 | Zogby Zogby International IBOPE Zogby International is an international market research, opinion polling firm founded in 1984 by John Zogby. The company polls and consults for a wide spectrum of business media, government, and political groups, and conducts public opinion research in more than 70 countries... |
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1114 | 29% | 34% | 22% |
| May 15, 2006 | El Universal El Universal (Mexico City) El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution... |
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/animados/presid-mayo06.html | 35% | 39% | 21% |
| May 8, 2006 | Parametría | http://www.parametria.com.mx/es_cartaext.php?id_carta=134 | 34% | 36% | 26% |
| May 4, 2006 | GEA-ISA | http://www.isa.org.mx/contenido/Gimx0604p.pdf | 31% | 41% | 25% |
| May 3, 2006 | Consulta Mitofsky | 34% | 35% | 27% | |
| May 3, 2006 | Reforma Reforma Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000... |
33% | 40% | 22% | |
| May 2, 2006 | Milenio Diario Milenio Diario Milenio is a major national newspaper in Mexico, owned by Grupo Multimedios.It is published in 11 cities across Mexico, including Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, León, Pachuca, Puebla, Villahermosa, Tampico, Torreón, Toluca, and Xalapa... |
http://www.milenio.com/monterrey/milenio/nota.asp?id=79083 | 33% | 36% | 28% |
| April 23, 2006 | Parametría | http://www.parametria.com.mx/es_cartaext.php?id_carta=131 | 35% | 33% | 28% |
| April 17, 2006 | El Universal El Universal (Mexico City) El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution... |
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/137387.html | 38% | 34% | 25% |
| April 6, 2006 | Milenio Diario Milenio Diario Milenio is a major national newspaper in Mexico, owned by Grupo Multimedios.It is published in 11 cities across Mexico, including Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, León, Pachuca, Puebla, Villahermosa, Tampico, Torreón, Toluca, and Xalapa... |
34% | 31% | 31% | |
| April 6, 2006 | Arcop* | 33% | 36% | 29% | |
| March 27, 2006 | Consulta Mitofsky | 37.5% | 30.6% | 28.8% | |
| March 27, 2006 | BIMSA | 31.2% | 25.5% | 21.4% | |
| March 21, 2006 | GEA-ISA | http://www.isa.org.mx/contenido/Gimx0603p.pdf | 34% | 36% | 28% |
| March 16, 2006 | Reforma Reforma Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000... |
41% | 31% | 25% | |
| March 13, 2006 | El Universal El Universal (Mexico City) El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution... |
42% | 32% | 24% | |
| February 22, 2006 | Consulta Mitofsky | http://www.consulta.com.mx | 39.4% | 29.8% | 27.5% |
| February 21, 2006 | GEA-ISA | http://www.isa.org.mx/contenido/Gimx0602p.pdf |
34% | 27% | 22% |
| February 21, 2006 | Reforma Reforma Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000... |
http://www.reforma.com.mx | 38% | 31% | 29% |
| February 20, 2006 | El Universal El Universal (Mexico City) El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution... |
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/animados/presid-feb06.html | 30% | 27% | 22% |
| January 23, 2006 | GEA-ISA | http://www.isa.org.mx/contenido/Gimx0601p.pdf |
35% | 35% | 29% |
| January 26, 2006 | El Universal El Universal (Mexico City) El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution... |
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/animados/presid-ene06.html | 33% | 27% | 20% |
| January 20, 2006 | Parametria | http://www.parametria.com.mx/es_cartaext.php?id_carta=118 | 35.7% | 27.4% | 26.2% |
| January 20, 2006 | TV Azteca TV Azteca Azteca, is the second largest Mexican television entertainment. It was established in 1983 as the state-owned Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión , a holding of the national TV networks channel 13 and 7 and was privatized under its current name in 1993 and now is part of Grupo Salinas... |
http://www.todito.com/paginas/noticias/184139.html | 38% | 31% | 28% |
| January 19, 2006 | Reforma Reforma Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000... |
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/news/docs/Reforma%20Polls%201.19.06.PDF | 34% | 26% | 22% |
| January 19, 2006 | La Jornada La Jornada La Jornada is one of Mexico City's leading daily newspapers. It was established in 1984 by Carlos Payán Velver. The current editor is Carmen Lira Saade... * |
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/01/19/010n1pol.php | 39% | 27% | 22% |
| January 18, 2006 | Consulta Mitofsky | http://www.consulta.com.mx/interiores/11_elecciones/elec_Asivan0106.html | 38.7% | 31% | 29.2% |
| January 8, 2006 | Milenio Diario Milenio Diario Milenio is a major national newspaper in Mexico, owned by Grupo Multimedios.It is published in 11 cities across Mexico, including Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, León, Pachuca, Puebla, Villahermosa, Tampico, Torreón, Toluca, and Xalapa... * |
http://www.milenio.com/nota.asp?id=254799 | 28% | 30% | 25% |
| December 5, 2005 | Univision Univision Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva... .com |
http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?cid=739966 | 34.8% | 28.8% | 30.4% |
| November 21, 2005 | Reforma Reforma Reforma is a Mexican newspaper based in Mexico City. It has 276,700 readers in Mexico City. The paper shares content with other papers in parent newsgroup Grupo Reforma. The cumulative readership of the newsgroup is above 400,000... |
http://www.consulta.com.mx/interiores/99_pdfs/11_elecciones_pdf/elec_NA20051113_AsiVan.pdf | 29% | 28% | 21% |
| November 5, 2005 | El Universal El Universal (Mexico City) El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution... |
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/animados/presid-nov05.html | 34% | 22% | 18% |
| Date | Publisher | Source | López Obrador | Calderón | Madrazo |
* Polls conducted by Arcop (published in Milenio and showed the first lead of Calderón over López Obrador) and Covarrubias (published in La Jornada, and the one that showed the highest lead of López Obrador) are internal polls, and generally not as reliable as the others.
Assets, liabilities and annual expenses
As of January 2005, only three candidates had made a public declaration of assets, liabilities and annual expenses. These figures were given in pesoMexican peso
The peso is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 15th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use its sign, "$". The Mexican peso is the 12th most traded currency in the world, the third most traded in the Americas, and by far the most...
s, the total value of assets of each candidate follows at an exchange rate
Exchange rate
In finance, an exchange rate between two currencies is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another. It is also regarded as the value of one country’s currency in terms of another currency...
of 10.62 pesos to one United States dollar
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
(Source: Banamex):
| Candidate | Assets | Liabilities | Annual Expenses | As of (Date) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| López Obrador | MX$ 1,295,358 / US$ 121,973 | 0 | MX$ 1,165,650 / US$ 109,760 | June 3, 2004 | |
| Calderón | MX$ 8,803,885 / US$ 828,991 | – | – | January 19, 2006 | |
| Madrazo | MX$ 29,398,668 / US$ 2,768,236 | MX$ 39,290 / US$ 2,758 | MX$ 475,000 / US$ 44,727 | January 19, 2006 |
Presidential debates
A first presidential debate was held on 25 April 2006 with the presence of all candidates with the notable exception of López Obrador. López Obrador had refused to participate in all debates, and said he would only participate in one since long before the first debate was scheduled. The rest of the candidates agreed on leaving an empty chair to symbolize that the fifth candidate was indeed invited.The silla vacía (Spanish for "empty chair") became the topic of political commentary shows and the press. Excélsior
Excélsior
Excélsior is a daily newspaper, founded by Rafael Alducin and published in Mexico City since 1917.During the 1950s and 1960s, the newspaper's editorial stance was of a relatively liberal bent, under the editorship of Julio Scherer...
called the empty chair a "double-edged sword" coinciding with other publications and TV shows that leaving the empty chair could be construed as an insult to the audience and an attack to López Obrador. However, by the date of the debates, the statistical tendency in many polls had confirmed Calderón at the second spot and López Obrador still with a single digit advantage over him.
After the first debate some political commentators, media outlets, and polls indicated that Calderón was seen as the winner of the debate, Mercado as the pleasant surprise of the night. and a nervous Madrazo as the worst performer of the night. However, political analysts also said that the debate was unnecessarily full of promises and personal attacks. Analysts considered that López Obrador was negatively affected by his absence and polls later confirmed Calderón having replaced López Obrador as the leading candidate.
A second debate took place on 6 June of the same year, from 20:30 to 22:30, Central Time, with the confirmed presence of all candidates, including López Obrador. Media outlets have given results to telephone polls applied post-debate showing a mixed tendency. Most, like Reforma and Presente, gave Felipe Calderón the lead, but a few, like Diario Monitor, gave it to Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
However, the rise of López Obrador in voter preference polls since the debate seems to indicate that it was the PRD candidate who won it. One of the main causes for this victory may have been the Hildebrando accusation that López Obrador made during the debate.
Before the debate, Carlos Ahumada
Carlos Ahumada
Carlos Agustín Ahumada Kurtz is a naturalized Mexican businessman owner of Grupo Quart, a newspaper and former owner of two football clubs in Mexico who was convicted for corruption-related crimes in Mexico City in 2004.Ahumada Kurtz moved to Mexico at the age of 11 on October 6, 1975 with his...
's wife threatened to release tapes involving allies of López Obrador in suspected acts of corruption, but the release was cancelled due to an attempted murder which is still under investigation. (See: Videoscandals).
Victor González Torres, a national pharmacy entrepreneur nicknamed "Dr. Simi", declared himself a non-registered write-in candidate
Write-in candidate
A write-in candidate is a candidate in an election whose name does not appear on the ballot, but for whom voters may vote nonetheless by writing in the person's name. Some states and local jurisdictions allow a voter to affix a sticker with a write-in candidate's name on it to the ballot in lieu...
and tried to enter the building where the debate was to take place. González Torres demanded to be allowed participation in the debate, but he was not allowed to enter the building where he made the demand. He even brought his own chair. Candidates with no political parties are not permitted to compete in elections under Mexican law, and votes for all write-in candidates are counted together, regardless of which write-in candidate the vote was cast.
Congressional Election
Eight political parties participated in the 2006 congressional election to renew all seats in the upperSenate of Mexico
The Senate of the Republic, constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:...
and lower
Chamber of Deputies of Mexico
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Congress of the Union, Mexico's bicameral legislature. The structure and responsibilities of both chambers of Congress are defined in Articles 50 to 70 of the current constitution.-Composition:The Chamber of Deputies is composed of one federal...
houses of Congress
Congress of Mexico
The Congress of the Union is the legislative branch of the Mexican government...
.
In the current session of Congress, no party holds a majority.
Preliminary results below are as of 3 July 06:41 UTC.
Comparison
| Party | LIX Legislature LIX Legislature of the Mexican Congress The LIX Legislature of the Congress of Mexico met from September 2003 to August 2006. All members of the lower house of the Congress were elected in the elections of July 2003 while members of the upper house were elected in the elections of July 2000.-Chamber of Deputies:-Senate of... , 2003 |
LIX Leg. at dissolution | LX Legislature LX Legislature of the Mexican Congress The LX Legislature of the Congress of Mexico is meeting from September 1, 2006, to September 1, 2009. All members of both the lower and upper houses of Congress were elected in the elections of July 2006.-Senators by state:-Plurinominal Senators:... , 2006 |
Change, 2003–2006 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deputies | % of Chamber |
% of Vote |
Deputies | % of Chamber |
Deputies | % of Chamber |
% of Vote |
Deputies | % of Chamber |
% of Vote |
||
| 149 | 29.8% | 23.1% | 148 | 29.6% | 206 | 41.2% | 33.7% | + 57 | + 11.8% | + 10.8% | ||
| 97 | 19.4% | 17.6% | 97 | 19.4% | (160) | (32.0%) | (29.0%) | (+ 63) | (+ 10.6%) | |||
| 224 | 44.8% | 30.6% | 203 | 40.6% | (121) | (24.2%) | (27.6%) | (- 103) | (- 24.4%) | |||
| - | - | - | - | - | 9 | 1.8% | 4.7% | + 9 | + 1.8% | + 4.7% | ||
| - | - | - | - | - | 4 | 0.8% | 2.2% | + 4 | + 0.8% | + 2.2% | ||
| 17 | 3.4% | 4.0% | 17 | 3.4% | (n/a) | (n/a) | ||||||
| 6 | 1.2% | 2.4% | 6 | 1.2% | (n/a) | (n/a) | ||||||
| 5 | 1.0% | 2.3% | 5 | 1.0% | (n/a) | (n/a) | ||||||
| Independent | 2 | 0.4% | 24 | 4.8% | ||||||||
| Total | 500 | 100 | 100 | 500 | 100 | 500 | 100 | 100 | ||||
Comparison
| Party | LVIII Legislature LVIII Legislature of the Mexican Congress The LVIII Legislature of the Congress of Mexico met from September 1, 2000, to August 31, 2003. All members of the LVIII Legislature were elected in the elections of July 2000.... , 2000 |
LIX Leg. LIX Legislature of the Mexican Congress The LIX Legislature of the Congress of Mexico met from September 2003 to August 2006. All members of the lower house of the Congress were elected in the elections of July 2003 while members of the upper house were elected in the elections of July 2000.-Chamber of Deputies:-Senate of... at dissolution |
LX Legislature LX Legislature of the Mexican Congress The LX Legislature of the Congress of Mexico is meeting from September 1, 2006, to September 1, 2009. All members of both the lower and upper houses of Congress were elected in the elections of July 2006.-Senators by state:-Plurinominal Senators:... , 2006 |
Change, 2000–2006 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senators | % of Chamber |
% of Vote |
Senators | % of Chamber |
Senators | % of Chamber |
% of Vote |
Senators | % of Chamber |
% of Vote |
||
| 46 | 35.9% | † | 47 | 36.7% | 52 | 40.6% | 34.1% | + 6 | + 4.7% | - 1.8% | ||
| 15 | 11.7% | † | 15 | 11.7% | (36) | (28.1%) | (29.8%) | (+ 19) | (+ 14.8%) | |||
| 60 | 46.9% | 36.7% | 58 | 45.3% | (39) | (30.7%) | (27.4%) | (- 27) | (- 21.1%) | |||
| - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0.8% | 4.2% | + 1 | + 0.8% | + 4.2% | ||
| - | - | - | - | - | 2.0% | + 1 | + 0.8% | + 2.0% | ||||
| 5 | 3.9% | † | 5 | 3.9% | (n/a) | (n/a) | ||||||
| 1* | 0.8% | † | 1* | 0.8% | (n/a) | (n/a) | ||||||
| 1* | 0.8% | † | 1* | 0.8% | (n/a) | (n/a) | ||||||
| Independent | 0 | 0.0% | 1* | 0.8% | ||||||||
| Total | 128 | 100 | 100 | 128 | 100 | 128 | 100 | 100 | ||||
* - Non-attached members- † - Ran as part of slate.
External links
- What's at stake in Mexico's election? Socialist Worker
- Preliminary election results, this is a constantly updated count of actual ballots as they are tallied into the electoral system. Not a survey, these are actual results.
- Opinion pieces on the election Link to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a think tank that has covered the 2006 presidential elections from Mexico.
- An Analysis of Mexico's Recounted Ballots Issue Brief by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, August 2006.
- Mexico 2006 Panel Study