Thread: Mexican voters in U.S. gain voice in Mexican election

http://www.dosmundos.com/editions/Vol25 ... s-Aeng.htm

Mexican voters in U.S. gain voice in Mexican election

By Carmen Cardinal

A new measure, approved by Mexican lawmakers this week, will allow millions of Mexican nationals, now living in the United States, to vote in their homeland elections. By improving their corrupt and ineffective government in Mexico, millions would not have to come here seeking a better life.


In Mexico, people can’t find jobs, education for their children, or enjoy other amenities of life. Those are the primary reasons Mexican nationals come to a hostile land where they can’t speak the language or legally find work.


This past week in Mexico City, lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a law allowing millions of Mexicans living abroad to vote by mail in next year’s presidential election – a measure that could reshape the country’s leadership race.To chants of “Viva Mexico,� the lower house of Congress in Mexico passed an absentee voting proposal by 455 to six, with six abstentions. The bill has already been approved by Mexico’s Senate and only needs to be signed by President Vicente Fox to become law – something he has promised to do.Fox, who was traveling in Belize when the measure was passed, called its approval something “all of Mexico should celebrate.�“It brings justice to many Mexicans,� Fox said, adding that migrants abroad “are informed, have access to international information ... and will be a great addition, with their decisions and their ideas� to the electoral process.An estimated 11 million Mexicans, as much as 14 percent of the country’s electorate, live abroad, mostly in the United States. Expatriates are legally allowed to vote and hold dual citizenship, but have been effectively barred from participating in elections because of the lack of an absentee ballot system.When Fox ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, during elections in 2000, thousands of Mexicans crossed from the United States into their homeland to seek special voting booths set up along the border.Members of the PRI party, which controls the largest bloc of seats in Congress, was concerned that migrants would vote against it because they were forced to leave the country for lack of work during PRI rule. Migrants living outside of the reach of the PRI would not be intimidated at the booths.


The support came despite fears expressed by members of all major political parties that the country’s notoriously slow and corrupt postal service will handle the mailing of ballots.“Voting by mail has its advantages and disadvantages, but it is the consensus that has been agreed upon,� said Juan Jose Garcia of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.The bill was passed with little time to spare. An absentee ballot system must be approved by the end of the month to take effect in time for the July 2, 2006, presidential election.Those who voted against the measure complained that voting by mail was unworkable.“We accept programs that humiliate [migrants], hurt them, cut them,� complained Eliana Garcia of Democratic Revolution. “We even accept programs that cause them to die. And the only thing we’re offering today is an undignified vote by mail.�


Noemi Hernandez, of the Mexican Consul office in Kansas City, said that persons who want to register to vote can find information on the Internet, under the Instituto Federal Electoral.


People who already have a registration card with a photo thumbprint will be able to re-register by mail to vote. People who don’t have the current registration card cannot register by mail. Registration for those with a previous card with the photo and fingerprint ID will be from Oct. 1, 2005, to Jan. 15, 2006, by certified mail. The deadline to receive it in Mexico is Feb. 15, 2006. People who are not registered and want to register must do it in Mexico unless there is a sufficient outcry to change the rules.


Already there are several frontrunners who have been identified as potential candidates for the 2006 presidential race in Mexico, according to a poll by Prospecta Consulting published in La Crisis.


About 37.6 percent of respondents say the governing National Action Party (PAN) should nominate current interior secretary Santiago Creel. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled Mexico for 71 consecutive years, losing its first presidential election in 2000 with candidate Francisco Labastida running against PAN’s Vicente Fox. Fox won a six-year term with 42.5 percent of the vote. Fox cannot run for re-election. Former energy secretary Felipe Calderón is on the list of prospective PAN candidates with 19.8 percent, followed by social development secretary Josefina Vázquez Mota with 6.6 percent. As far as PRI contenders, former Tabasco governor Roberto Madrazo leads with 44.3 percent, followed by state of Mexico governor Arturo Montiel with 11.5 percent, and former Veracruz governor Miguel Alemán with 6.4 percent. Current Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the overwhelming choice for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) with 54.8 percent, followed by former Mexico City mayor and three-time presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, with 11.4 percent; and Zacatecas governor Amalia GarcÃÂ*a, with 7.1 percent.


Mexican voters can keep up with their candidates and issues through the Internet and through Hispanic media.

Great News! Foxey Flopped; His Party Flooped; Revolutionaries that ruled for 71 years are soon to be back in control....Globalists are soon to be in a "strait", perhaps a "dire" one at that...NOW Go Home, Join the Revolution, Get Your Farms Back, and Take Control of Your Nation!!

It is a lovely country, that you love with all your hearts, that you need to fight for and revolutionize for the better.

Nothing good happened for you under American control down there....The citizens of the United States had nothing to do with it. This was our Traitorous Leaders leading both our country and yours into economic disaster.

Now, take what you've learned and go home. Change your country by changing its laws....Whatever It Takes.