Dokument #1227991
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
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]