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Weekly Report - 18 June 2009 (WR-09-24)

MEXICO: Void-vote campaign gathers strength

The government's high-profile offensives against organised crime are not proving to be the vote-winner President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and his Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) had hoped for the 5 July congressional elections. Indeed, the embarrassing revelations of the contacts between Mauricio Fernández Garza, the PAN candidate for mayor of a rich and important municipality in Nuevo León, and a powerful faction of a major drug gang, threatens to undermine the government's whole electoral strategy. Voters are making it clear, in the opinion polls at least, that they do not see much difference between the PAN and the other political parties on crime, and increasing numbers of voters say that they are prepared to spoil their ballot papers or vote blank to demonstrate their disgust with all politicians.

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