IEV reports 60% voter turnout

The IEV has reported that nearly six out of every ten Veracruzanos voted in Sunday’s elections for municipal and state government seats. In the week leading up to the elections, the editorial pages in Xalapa’s two most widely distributed local papers, AZ Xalapa and Diario de Xalapa, were dominated by pleas made to the people of the city to exercise their fundamental democratic right to vote. Certainly, the argument could be made that the high voter turnout can be attributed to people being inspired to take an active role in a system that has proven its ability to lend them a lending hand when necessary. But, more likely (many believe), the reported figures don’t jive with reality.

My program director Rob told me that his friend who hosts a news radio show every morning believes voter turnout was more likely in the range of 20-25%. This is based on reports that the radio host received Monday morning on abnormally short lines at polling places throughout the state. Also, the 60% figure, while officially given by IEV, has so far only been published in the PRI-owned Diario. Obviously, by proving that a majority of the state’s citizens voted, PRI can deflect criticisms that the elections weren’t a true representation of the people’s sentiment.

In such a heated and polarized political climate there’s no real way to know for sure who’s telling the truth. But, if nothing else, we know with certainty that with its sweeping victory and its ability to convince its opponents in the past three days of the legitimacy of Sunday’s elections, PRI, at least in Veracruz, has recaptured the monopolistic grip on political power that it had managed to maintain for 70 years before Mexico elected its first non-PRI President in 2000.