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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2006 
Fox Promises "Cleanest Elections In History"
 Xinhua
| | Mexican President Vicente Fox, shown here in this May 4 file photo in Mexico City, begins a five-day trip to the United States on Tuesday, beginning in Utah and moving on to Washington state and California. (AP/Moises Castillo, File) |
Mexico City - Mexico's President Vicente Fox promised on Monday to make the July 2 general elections "the cleanest in history," in response to accusations of his using government resources for campaigns.
Fox, leading the National Action Party (PAN), told local radio and television broadcasters that starting from Tuesday, the Federal Electoral Agency (IFE), Mexico's main electoral body, would ban the use of the public sector to advertise for individual candidates or to redirect money to parties or presidential aspirants.
The new measures would restrict the central government, regional governors and the Mexico City mayor's office in particular.
Fox said the IFE would ensure the measures were applied "transparently and equitably."
"Rest assured that your vote will be respected," Fox said, adding, "I reiterate...my promise to respect the laws, institutions and values of democracy."
Local media and opposition politicians have accused the president of talking democracy while paying for a government election campaign, known as a "state election" in Mexico, which benefited his party's candidate Felipe Calderon.
In response to the accusation, Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, told a regular government press conference on Monday that "those, who speak of a state election in Mexico, are doing so with the intention of destabilizing the electoral process and betraying both democracy and the Mexican people."
He said such people "know all about (electoral fraud) because they practiced it in the 1970s."
The Institutional Revolution Party (PRI), now in opposition, ruled Mexico for the whole of the 1970s.
In March, the front runner in the polls was Mexico City's former mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).
Two other main candidates, PAN's Calderon and PRI's Robert Madrazo, were lagging far behind.
Some media reports said the PAN and PRI resorted to advertisements that were beyond the normal political boundaries.
PAN president Fox, who became the first opposition leader to win the presidency after 71 years of uninterrupted PRI rule, will step down on Dec. 1.
Mexican presidents serve a single six-year term. |
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