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71437
2006-07-14 18:01:00
06MEXICO3907
Embassy Mexico
CONFIDENTIAL
06MEXICO3834
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TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL MX
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 003907 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/13/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL MX
SUBJECT: LOOKING FOR FRAUD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES? 
 REF: A. A) MEXICO 3834 
 
     ¶B. B) MEXICO 3422 
 
Classified By: ACTING POLITICAL CHIEF ALAN MELTZER, REASONS: 1.4(B/D). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary:  In a July 12 meeting with poloffs, 
officials of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) offered an 
impassioned defense of their work in conducting the July 2 
presidential elections.  Although they had not yet seen the 
specific complaints submitted by the PRD (or, for that 
matter, those of the PAN), they described in great detail the 
safeguards incorporated into IFE's election process, many of 
which were previously described at an SRE briefing for the 
diplomatic corps (ref A).  They refuted in detail several of 
the specific allegations of fraud or irregularities singled 
out by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) in recent news 
conferences.  On July 13 we met with former IFE head Jose 
Woldenberg, who opined that the election appeared to have 
been conducted with complete transparency.  He doubted AMLO's 
allegations of widespread fraud, insisting that the dispute 
simply reflected the understandable frustration felt by the 
second place candidate in a very narrow race.  He predicted 
that the likeliest resolution would be that the electoral 
tribunal (TEPJF) would order a partial recount of ballots, 
and that he expected such a recount to confirm Calderon's 
victory.  Both contacts deeply lamented the damage that the 
allegations of fraud were doing to IFE's hard-won 
credibility.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) On July 12, poloffs met with IFE Counselor 
Alejandra Latapi and IFE Director for International Affairs 
Manuel Carrillo to discuss the most recent developments in 
the dispute over the results of the Mexican presidential 
election.   From the outset of our meeting, Latapi asserted 
that the election had been exemplary and that in several 
important respects, the electoral system functioned even more 
effectively this year than in previous years.  She noted, for 
example, that out of the over 130,000 precincts planned 
nationwide, all but 11 actually operated on Election Day, 
including every precinct planned for the conflictive state of 
Chiapas; in 2000, IFE was unable to set up 104 of the 
precincts planned nationwide. 
 
Seeking to Set the Record Straight 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) In addition to detailing the considerable 
safeguards protecting virtually every step of the election 
process, she sought to refute several of the specific 
allegations raised by AMLO in recent press conferences.  She 
first sought to rebut AMLO's allegation, based upon a video 
he showed at a recent press conference, that ballot box 
stuffing had occurred in the state of Guanajuato.  She 
explained that the person seen in the video depositing 
multiple ballots in a ballot box -- who in fact was the 
precinct president -- was simply relocating to the correct 
box Chamber of Deputies ballots that inadvertently had been 
deposited in the presidential ballot box.  She noted that 
such an action was legal and that all of the party 
representatives -- including that of the PRD -- were aware of 
the action at the time and did not object.  (Note: AMLO 
subsequently asserted that the PRD precinct representative 
may have been bought off by the PAN, a charge strenuously 
denied by the 19 year old woman who volunteered as his 
representative in that precinct.  End note.) 
 
¶4.  (SBU) As for AMLO's allegation that a discrepancy in the 
tally sheet of a ballot box in Queretaro cost him votes, 
Latapi said this discrepancy had been raised during the 
district retabulation, the ballot box had been opened, the 
votes recounted, and the discrepancy corrected.  She noted 
this was precisely the reason why the electoral law provided 
for a district retabulation, and was an example of the system 
working properly.  She also sought to refute an allegation of 
fraud in Coahuila, where the PRD identified a temporary IFE 
employee claiming to have been pressured to change vote 
tallies to Calderon's advantage, and to have seen Calderon's 
vote totals grow immediately after an alleged power outage. 
Latapi said that upon investigation, IFE found numerous 
contradictions in his story.  Rather than being hired as a 
"capturista" to enter vote totals in the IFE data base, as he 
had claimed, he had been hired for manual labor; in the early 
morning hours on election night, he was asked to briefly 
assist the district council by recording results being 
dictated for a second, unofficial vote tally.  Members of the 
 
MEXICO 00003907  002 OF 003 
 
 
district council, as well as representatives of four 
political parties, certified that he never had access to the 
official tally sheets and that there had been no power outage 
during the evening. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Finally, Latapi addressed the PRD's charge that IFE 
had improperly opened ballot boxes being stored under 
military guard in Tabasco, Puebla and Sonora.  She asserted 
that the electoral law did not preclude its reopening of 
these ballot boxes, that they were reopened (and later 
resealed) in the presence of the IFE district council and 
party representatives, and that IFE had ordered them to be 
opened because the PRD (and in some cases, the PAN) had 
requested copies of tally sheets and incident reports therein 
so as to be able to prepare its electoral challenge.  She 
emphasized that in no case did the district councils open the 
sealed envelopes containing the executed ballots.  (Note: 
Former IFE President Jose Woldenberg told poloff that 
although he believed IFE acted in good faith in opening the 
ballot boxes, IFE would have been well-advised not to do so 
without a court order, given the toxic, post-election 
climate.  In fact, late on July 12, IFE announced it would 
not open additional further ballot boxes pending a TEPJF 
order.  End note.) 
 
Allegations of Fraud May Undermine Electoral System 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶6.  (C) Lapati told poloffs that her greatest concern was 
that the recent allegations of electoral fraud risked 
undermining citizen management of elections, which is the 
very foundation of the Mexican electoral system.  She 
reminded us that each voting precinct is staffed by four 
randomly selected and trained citizens, who were responsible 
not only for checking voters' credentials and administering 
the voting process but also for counting the votes.  Because 
the electoral framework was based on the principle that the 
votes should be counted by citizens, rather than by civil 
servants, the law authorized recounts only in the case of an 
inconsistency or apparent error.  She feared that the recent 
allegations of electoral fraud would undermine public trust 
in this citizen-based system, and was also concerned that 
electoral workers could be harassed in their communities, 
making it difficult to recruit volunteers in the future.  She 
also noted that PRD demands that IFE district councils 
recount the votes in every ballot box were inconsistent with 
TEPJF jurisprudence. The TEPJF has previously annulled lower 
level elections where numerous ballot boxes had been 
recounted without the legal criteria being met; in order to 
avoid risking the annulment of this election, IFE had issued 
strict instructions to recount votes only where the statutory 
criteria were met. 
 
Woldenberg Sees No Evidence of Widespread Fraud 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶7.  (C) Former IFE head and well-respected commentator Jose 
Woldenberg told us that while errors undoubtedly had been 
made in the vote count, he is aware of no evidence of an 
organized plan to commit election fraud.  Indeed, he believes 
a widespread conspiracy to commit fraud would be impossible 
given IFE's numerous safeguards.  He characterized as 
"fantasy" the PRD's allegation that the IFE's preliminary 
count (PREP) software contained an algorithm that deducted 
votes from AMLO, noting that every element of data entered 
into the PREP could be corroborated against vote totals on 
the tally sheets.  He thought that overall, IFE had conducted 
the elections very well and that in fact, there were few 
differences between the way it conducted this year's election 
and the way it conducted the 2000 election.  The only 
significant differences were that this year, the IFE adopted 
stricter standards for incorporating vote totals into the 
PREP, meaning that more precincts were excluded from the PREP 
for closer examination by the district councils, and that in 
2000 IFE had decided it would release the results of its 
quick count on election night no matter how narrow the margin 
between the candidates. 
 
¶8.  (C) Woldenberg's biggest concern over the present 
situation is the damage unnecessarily being done to IFE's 
reputation by what he considers unfounded allegations of 
fraud.  He noted that it had taken years for Mexico to 
establish a credible electoral system and that no matter how 
the TEPJF resolves the present dispute, a core of AMLO true 
believers -- he called them a "community of faith" -- will 
 
MEXICO 00003907  003 OF 003 
 
 
always be convinced that IFE orchestrated or abetted fraud. 
 
What's Next??? 
-------------- 
 
¶9.  (C) Woldenberg sees the present situation playing out in 
one of three possible scenarios.  The most likely is that the 
TEPJF -- perhaps after ordering a partial recount -- will 
confirm Calderon as the winner; he doubts the TEPJF would 
order a complete, nationwide recount.  The second scenario, 
which he considers highly improbable, is that a partial or 
total recount would reverse the election results, resulting 
in AMLO's election.  The third scenario, which he also 
considers highly improbable, is that the TEPJF would annul 
the entire election.  (Note: As we have previously reported 
(ref B), TEPJF magistrates told poloffs several weeks before 
the election that they would be very reluctant to annul the 
entire election.  End note.) 
 
¶10.  (C) Woldenberg believes that however the TEPJF rules, 
its decision would soon end the stand-off.  Assuming the 
TEPJF confirms Calderon as President, AMLO's base of support 
would quickly dwindle, although he might manage to convoke 
one or two post-TEPJF demonstrations.  He argued that the PRD 
was essentially a party of "institutionality" with a great 
deal invested in the system, particularly now that it has 
emerged as the second force in Congress.  He concluded that 
it had a great deal to lose if it continued to press its case 
extra-institutionally, and that much of the support AMLO 
retains in the party hierarchy would melt away as senior PRD 
office holders sought to protect their own interests. 
 
Comment:  AMLO Playing the Wrong Card? 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  (C)  Frankly, in focusing on fraud where little or none 
likely exists, AMLO not only is damaging one of Mexico's most 
credible political institutions, but he may be undermining 
the small chance he has of reversing the electoral results. 
While we have seen no credible evidence of fraud, there is 
some evidence that the incidence of human error was greater 
in his strongholds, presumably because the level of education 
in those regions tends to be lower: among the more than 2.5 
million votes excluded from the PREP but included in the 
final results (ref A), AMLO appears to have out-polled 
Calderon by some 150,000 votes.  Although we highly doubt a 
recount would find enough errors to overcome Calderon's 
current 243,000 lead, we suspect he is more likely to find 
significant errors than significant fraud.  For over 10 
years, AMLO has advanced his political career in part by 
knowing how to take political advantage of situations in 
which he has been wronged.  In the present case, however, his 
tendency to consider himself the victim of a conspiracy may 
turn out to be his Achilles heel. 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity 
 
GARZA