VZCZCXRO8511
PP RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHHO #0286/01 1842224
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 032224Z JUL 06
FM AMCONSUL HERMOSILLO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1504
INFO RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO PRIORITY 0544
RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHHO/AMCONSUL HERMOSILLO 1893

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HERMOSILLO 000286 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/MEX; EMBASSY MEXICO FOR POL (PEDRO MARTIN), 
MCCA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM MX
SUBJECT: HERMOSILLO -- OBSERVATION OF JULY 2 NATIONAL AND LOCAL 
ELECTIONS 
 
 
HERMOSILLO 00000286  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Summary:  The voting process in Hermosillo, as 
observed by Consulate teams, was clean and fair and managed well 
at neighborhood polling stations.  Transit voters at "casillas 
especiales" experienced long delays and frustrations but showed 
an admirable determination to vote, some waiting seven hours to 
do so.  Preliminary results show that Sonora (and Hermosillo) 
strongly favored PAN's Felipe Calderon for president.   A strong 
plurality of Sinaloa voters also appears to be for Calderon. 
The PRI, however, apparently has won the mayoralties in 
Hermosillo, Obregon, Navajoa and several other key Sonoran 
cities, a payoff for PRI Governor Bours' control of the local 
party organs and strategy of maintaining distance from the PRI 
national organization. End Summary. 
 
AN EXCELLENT PROCESS, EXCEPT AT CASILLAS ESPECIALES 
 
¶2. (U)  Consulate Hermosillo fielded two teams (PO Clarke, Vice 
Consuls Quinlan, Dubose, and Bliss) to serve as accredited 
election observers at "casillas" (polling places) for the July 2 
elections, national and local.  The teams visited 21 sites in a 
variety of neighborhoods throughout Sonora's capital city, some 
containing multiple casillas.   These sites were for voters in 
the local mayoral races, as well as the contests for the Mexican 
presidency and federal senate and representative positions. 
Included in the observer teams' visits were five to "casillas 
especiales" (special polling places) where voters in transit and 
away from their designated stations, or who had changed 
domicile, could vote. 
 
¶3. (U)  All the neighborhood casillas visited were models for a 
democratic voting process.  Polling officials seemed 
knowledgeable and careful about eligibility procedures and were 
courteous and appropriately helpful to voters.  The voting 
system contained safeguards, and was fair, transparent and well 
watched over at every step by representatives from the competing 
political parties, and officials from the Federal Voting 
Institute (IFE) and the local Sonora State Electoral Council 
(CEE).  The only election posters on any site were IFE and CEE 
material and there were no illegal attempts observed to coerce 
or influence voters in their choices. 
 
¶4. (U)  While representatives of the Institutional Revolutionary 
Party (PRI) were more numerous at most stations, and were 
observed to be more organized and aggressive in reviewing 
arrangements at the openings of casillas observed by the 
Consulate teams, there were no serious disputes observed.  When 
a PRI observer challenged a National Action Party (PAN) 
observer's use of a voting list to observe local registration 
verification, the PAN official immediately desisted and called 
his headquarters for guidance.  Indeed, various observers 
commented that the communication between party representatives 
in this election was the best they had ever experienced.  We 
observed that level of cooperation throughout the day, including 
during the vote count at one polling station, where the 
tabulation was done in an entirely fair and careful manner by 
the voting officials in front of the party representatives. 
While some small glitches occurred, the Consulate teams scored 
all the neighborhood casillas in the 7-10 range on the 10 point 
Embassy scale for overall management. 
 
¶5. (SBU)  The worst problems observed in Hermosillo were at the 
five "casillas especiales", where hundreds of voters waited for 
up to seven hours to vote.  Officials had vastly underestimated 
the number of voters who would use these sites, and provided 
only one laptop computer to verify voting credentials and one 
voting booth.  In sharp contrast to the neighborhood casillas, 
these sites seemed chaotic.  The IFE officials present seemed 
unwilling to take a stronger role to ensure the process 
maintained its integrity.  There were complaints that the 
computer programs were slow in the morning and, even where the 
Consulate teams observed processing of voters at a clip of one 
every 40 seconds later in the day, that proved not to be 
adequate to quickly reduce the lines.  At the airport casilla 
especial the computer broke down completely and officials went 
to manual processing.  Rumors circulated that insufficient 
"president only" ballots (750 at each casilla especial) were on 
hand, but that did not appear to be the case at the one casilla 
especial where a Consulate team stayed hours after the official 
closing.  At that station, however, IFE officials made no 
special effort to turn away voters who got into line after the 6 
pm official cutoff. 
 
¶6. (U)  Comment:  Even at the trouble-plagued casillas 
especiales, the strongest impression was of the determination of 
hundreds of voters to put up with any inconvenience in order to 
vote.  Some left, but most were willing to wait patiently, and 
for the most part were relatively cheerful.  Even one young man 
 
HERMOSILLO 00000286  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
who complained in vulgar terms about the delay to one of our 
team, in the end, stayed several more hours and, when he was 
done voting, was all smiles.  This attitude of the Mexican 
voters was perhaps the best and most characteristic thing that 
the teams observed in Hermosillo about this election.  End 
Comment. 
 
SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS 
 
¶7. (SBU)  Election votes are still being officially tabulated, 
but it is already clear that Sonora (and even more so 
Hermosillo) voters -- probably a majority -- heavily favored PAN 
candidate Felipe Calderon for president over the PRD's Andres 
Manuel Lopez Obrador and the PRI's Robert Madrazo.  Sinaloa, the 
other state in the Hermosillo consular district, also apparently 
preferred Calderon by a significant margin.  PAN candidates in 
Sonora for senator and representative slots may have done better 
than expected, but that conclusion is not as firm. 
 
¶8. (SBU)  One notable election result in Sonora is the PRI 
party's apparent wins in mayoral races in Hermosillo, Obregon, 
Navajoa, Guaymas, and Empalme, some of the major population 
centers in the state.  This success could redound hugely to the 
credit of Sonora's PRI Governor Eduardo Bours, who dominated 
selection of the party's mayoral candidates in Sonora 
(including, though, in Nogales, where his hand-picked candidate 
lost), and conspicuously fended off pressure from the PRI 
national organization. 
CLARKE