Vote-Buying Casts Shadow Over Mexico Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
July 1, 2012

MEXICO CITY - Political reforms in Mexico have made it much harder to steal an election, officials say. But a lot of people think you can still buy one.

As voters go to the polls today to elect a new president, allegations are flying that candidates are offering money and swag, flouting campaign-spending limits in the process.

Most allegations are aimed at the old guard Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which polls say holds a sizable lead after being kicked out of the top office by voters 12 years ago.

The PRI held onto Mexico's presidency for 71 years, using vote-buying and other fraud when deemed necessary until it was defeated in 2000 by the National Action Party, or PAN.

The PRI claims to have changed, and political reforms instituted since 1988 have made Mexican elections far harder to steal.

But in the latest contest, the National Action Party accused PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto's campaign of acquiring about 9,500 prepaid gift cards worth nearly $5.2 million to give away for votes.

Peña Nieto has also been dogged by allegations that he surpassed his $330 million campaign funding limit and bought favorable coverage from Mexico's television giant, Televisa.

With a double-digit lead in most polls, Peña Nieto has seldom felt the need to respond to the attacks.

"We are going to win with your vote, with your free participation, nothing coerced or conditioned," he told a crowd last week at a closing rally in the southern state of Chiapas.

But the election fraud unit of Mexico's Attorney General's Office says that since the campaign officially began March 30, it has opened investigations into 542 complaints that voters were bought off or coerced to vote for a certain candidate.

Today, Mexico's more than 79 million voters will elect a president, who serves one six-year term, as well as 500 congressional deputies and 128 senators. There are governors' races in six of Mexico's 31 states, plus Mexico City, as well hundreds of local offices up for grabs.

For president, voters will choose among Peña Nieto and his chief rivals: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD; Josefina Vazquez Mota of the ruling National Action Party; and Gabriel Quadri of the New Alliance.

All three partieshave been accused of giving out gift cards and groceries to garner votes.

Technically, parties are allowed to give away anything they want, as long as they report the expense, don't exceed spending limits and don't make people feel the gift is payment for their vote.

Voter fraud was a well-practiced tradition under PRI rule, including the delivery of ballot boxes to polling stations with the votes already marked. Among the most dramatic examples of alleged vote stealing was the 1988 presidential election, which many people believe Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the PRD won.

Cardenas was ahead until a power outage shut down the count. When the power came back, Carlos Salinas of the PRI was winning and became the next president.

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