Voters go to the polls Sunday, June 7 in local and midterm national elections amid tight security following protests this week organized by radical teachers and other citizen groups that led to the burning and blockading of National Electoral Institute (INE) offices in the states of Oaxaca, Veracruz and Guerrero.
The elections will bring in 500 new federal deputies, nine governors, 17 state legislatures and 900 mayors.
Voters in Jalisco will elect 125 mayors, 19 federal legislators and 39 new members of the State Congress (19 by direct election and 20 by proportional representation).
Electoral authorities say 38,923 polling booths will be set up in the state with parties permitted to have their own representatives at each one to monitor the voting process. The PRI will have the most extensive coverage, having registered 35,173 representatives with the INE, giving the party a 90-percent presence at state polling stations. The MC, reportedly, will have only 24,147 representatives monitoring polling stations on election day, giving it 62-percent coverage.
The official end of the campaign kicked in Thursday, June 4, starting a three-day period during which parties, candidates, authorities and the media (including this newspaper) are forbidden from disseminating information or advertising that might influence the election’s outcome.
“This will be a period of reflection among citizens, when people think about the information they have obtained during the campaign and decide who to support,” said Guillermo Alcaraz Cross, president of Jalisco’s Electoral Institute. “Candidates will be forbidden from promoting their image, their proposals or their platforms in any way.”
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