Mexican presidential elections: Now what?

Siguiendo las elecciones en México

Out of 4 tragically bad options Mexicans chose the return of the PRI probably under the slogan of “he’s a son of a b**** but he’s our son of a b****” or “más vale malo por conocido que bueno por conocer”. There are plenty of allegations of fraud, cheating, misuse of funds and “electoral engineering”, but unfortunately for those asking to have a complete rematch the election law only allows for annulation of the election in conditions that would pretty much require a civil war or another sort of massive social unrest nobody in their right mind wants.

The good news is that it seems that for the first time in Mexican history we have active citizen movements outside of the government and party system. If working democratic and economic institutions are needed for a healthy country, and the only watchmen of the common good are the citizens, it is nice to see that finally we are seeing people getting involved outside of the electoral cycle.

Let’s hope it doesn’t get completely co-opted by the party system, or worse.