Information on the mayoral elections in the town of Mangas, Hidalgo State, in November 1994, including the name of the successful candidate and his/her political party, the status of the Party for Democratic Revolution (PRD) at municipal and state levels, and any reports of PRD party workers committing acts of harassment and violence against persons unaffiliated to any political party, 1994-1995 [MEX28403.E]

In a 16 December 1997 telephone interview with the Research Directorate, the secretary to the municipal president of Tezontepec de Aldama in Hidalgo State stated that the Tezontepec de Aldama municipality encompasses 26 localities, including the town of Mangas. She stated that each locality elects a delegate (delegado) every year to represent the community at the municipal level. According to the secretary, Juan Cornejo Corona of the PRD was elected as the delegate of Mangas in January 1994 to serve at the Tezontepec de Aldama municipal level for a one-year term until January 1995.

She added that Professor Luciano Cornejo of the PRD was elected Tezontepec de Aldama municipal president for a three-year term on 5 December 1993. A 29 November 1995 La Jornada report states that Luciano Cornejo was the Tezontepec de Aldama municipal president. The report adds that Cornejo was the sole PRD candidate to win the presidency at any municipal level in Hidalgo State (ibid.).

This information on Luciano Cornejo was corroborated by PRD's representative at the Hidalgo Electoral Institute (Instituto Electoral Estatal de Hidalgo) in Pachuca during a 17 December 1997 telephone interview. She added that in Hidalgo's 1993 election, three PRD state legislators out of 27 were elected by proportional representation to serve a three-year term.

The director was unaware of any serious acts of harassment or violence being committed by PRD party workers in the last few years in Hidalgo State. Additional information on any acts of violence committed by PRD party workers could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References


La Jornada [Mexico City]. 29 September 1995. "Chocaron a tiros campesinos y comuneros del valle de Mezquital." [Internet] http://serpiente.dgsca.unam.mx/ jornada/1995/nov95/951129/hidalgo.html [Accessed 8 Dec. 1997]

Municipo de Tezontepec de Aldama, Hidalgo, Mexico. 16 December 1997. Telephone interview with secretary to the municipal president.

Party for the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Pachuca, Hidalgo. 17 December 1997. Telephone interview with representative at the Hidalgo Electoral Institute.

Additional Sources Consulted


Amnesty International Report. 1994-1997.

Amnesty International. April 1997. Amnesty International's Concerns Regarding Torture and Ill-Treatment in Mexico.
_____. 1995.

Human Rights Violations in Mexico: A Challenge for the Nineties.

INS Resource Center. July 1995.

Mexico: Democracy and Human Rights.

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. 1994-1995.

Latin America Regional Reports: Mexico&NAFTA Report [London]. 1994-1995.

Mexico NewsPak [Austin, Tex.]. 1994-1995.

News from Americas Watch [New York]. 1994-1995.

Political Handbook of the World 1995-1996. 1996.

Resource Centre country file. Mexico: 1994-1995.

Electronic sources: IRB Databases, Global News Bank, LEXIS/NEXIS, Internet, REFWORLD (UNHCR database), World News Connection (WNC)

The information that follows was provided by an official at the consular section of the Embassy of Mexico in Ottawa during a 2 December 1997 telephone interview.

The full name of the voter registration card is Credencial De Elector (Voter Credential). It is a legal personal identification document issued by the Instituto Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Institute, IFE), an autonomous organization whose head is named by congressional consensus. The document is used to verify the identity of voters at polling stations, but can be used as a valid identification document for other purposes.

An official at the National Vigilance (or Oversight) Commission (Comisión Nacional de Vigilancia) of the Federal Voters Registry of the IFE provided the information that follows during a 5 December 1997 telephone interview.

According to law, the citizen must notify a change of home address to the IFE within 30 days of moving. However, the law does not provide for any penalties in case the citizen fails to notify the authorities. If the person does not notify the IFE of the change of address, the polling station where the person votes will continue to correspond to the last reported address.

By law, the voters' information contained in the database of the IFE is considered confidential and is not given to the public, even if such a request is made for humanitarian reasons, such as the location of a relative. The law allows access to the information to the political parties' representatives at the Vigilance Commission and the IFE General Council (Consejo General). The members of the electoral councils at the local and district level and the vigilance commissions at which the political parties are represented have access to the information of their area. The law requires that any access or use of the information by any such persons or parties be limited and directly related to their official functions within such bodies.

The information that follows was obtained from the internet web site of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE 1997).

The voting credential has 14 security features intended to guarantee the uniqueness of each card and its proper use during elections. The citizen's information includes his or her full name and home address. One of the safety features, the Issue Number (número de emisión), indicates how many times the citizen has requested the electoral register (padrón electoral) to change either his or her home address, correct other information, or otherwise requested a replacement card and that could affect the IFE database. The polling area (sección electoral) assigned to the voter corresponds to the registered home address.

The IFE produces for each election voters lists (listas nominales) with every citizen who has registered in the electoral register and who has a valid voting credential. A voting credential is not valid and the person will not be included in the voters lists when: the theft or loss of a credential is reported and a new one is requested; and/or when a halting or updating of a record is made due to change of address, data correction or card replacement, and the card has not been picked up by the citizen by the 30th day of September the year after such a process was requested. The voting credential also ceases to be valid when: the citizen has lost his or her civil rights; the person has lost his or her citizenship; and/or when the citizen dies. A voting credential is valid from the moment the citizen has his or her photograph taken and receives the credential.

The voters lists with photograph (listas nominales con fotografía) show, among other things, each registered voter's name, address and photograph, the latter being identical to the one printed on the voting credential, since it was digitally recorded at the same time the credential was produced and placed in the IFE's graphic database. For the current electoral processes the IFE will produce 11 sets of voters lists that will be distributed as follows: one for each political party, one for the polling stations (casillas electorales), one for backup (respaldo) for each state executive representation (vocalía estatal) of the IFE, and one for backup at each district representation of the IFE.

The graphic database of the IFE is compiled at 17 Regional Computation Centres (Centros Regionales de Cómputo), which use special equipment to digitalize (digitalizar) the receipt of the voting credential with photograph and store the information on optical disks. There are currently more than 150 million images or graphic records in the database that include photographs, fingerprints and signatures of the citizens. The final voters list includes more than 52 million citizens, with 450,000 different names and 250,000 different surnames or family names; there are 1,059 citizens registered without a surname, and the most frequently repeated full name—Maria Lopez Gomez—is shared by 728 citizens.

The voters register (Padrón electoral) includes all Mexican citizens that requested their registration in it with the purpose of obtaining the voting credential with photograph and thus exercise their right to vote. The voters list (Lista nominal) includes all those citizens who requested their inclusion in the register and who already have a voting credential with photograph that is valid.

Previous Responses to Information Requests refer to the use of the voter registration card as a recognizable personal identification document used for purposes other than voting. For example, in Response MEX27815.E of 22 September 1997 a Mexican official describes the voter registration card as one of the "legally valid identification documents that contain a photograph of the bearer," and which can be used for obtaining a Mexican passport, while Response MEX15030 of 30 August 1993 states that the "voting card" is a document that "can be used to support the legitimacy of a birth certificate."

Please note that the issuing of the voter registration card implies that the individual to whom it is issued is already an eligible voter, as stated in documents such as the 10 July 1993 article "Mexico Vote Card Hailed, Faulted" attached to Response MEX17608.E of 13 June 1994.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References


Comisión Nacional de Vigilancia, Registro Federal de Electores, Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE), Mexico City. 5 December 1997. Telephone interview with official.

Consulate of Mexico, Ottawa. 2 December 1997. Telephone interview with official.

Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE). 1997. "Credencial para votar con fotografía," "Listas nominales con fotografía," "Funciones del Registro Federal de Electores," "Sabías que...?" and "Organos de vigilancia." [Internet] http://www.ife.org.mx/RFE/ [Accessed 5 Dec. 1997]