Former President Leonel Fernández Presents Final Report on Mexico’s 2018 Electoral Process to the OAS Permanent Council

The former President of the Dominican Republic and President of the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD), Dr. Leonel Fernández, presented the results of a final report on elections in Mexico to the Organization of American States (OAS) Permanent Council. Dr. Fernández served as Chief of the OAS Foreign Visitors Mission to the Elections in Mexico that accompanied the federal and local electoral processes held in that country on July 1, 2018.

Along with the presentation of the report, the Mission made a series of recommendations focused on issues of participation, communications, political financing, electoral violence, overseas votes and electoral justice.

In his statement, Fernández highlighted that in terms of equality and gender representation “Mexico has defined a robust legal framework, and its execution has been effectively accompanied by the actions carried out by various electoral institutions.” At the same time, the Chief of the OAS Mission also mentioned the strong representation of women in Congress, one of the most important in the region.

Regarding the development of the electoral process, the report states that “… election day was characterized by a peaceful process in most states, where the federal and local authorities contributed to guaranteeing an atmosphere of normality.”

However, it does highlight that in some states electoral violence persisted.

The report also includes a series of recommendations, including the strengthening of security mechanisms for the various political actors and civil society representatives during the electoral period, and the need to develop federal norms
on political violence based on gender issues “that would allow the discussion of these problems from a comprehensive  perspective in order to guarantee their prevention, attention, sanction and eradication.”

At the end of former President Fernandez’ presentation, the OAS Permanent Representative from Mexico, Jorge Lomónaco, thanked the Chief of Mission for the report and extended his congratulatory remarks to the OAS General Secretariat for its continuing promotion and defense of democracy.

Finally, Magistrate President of the Superior Court of the Electoral Tribunal of the Justice System of the Mexican Federation, Janine M. Otálora Malassis, explained that for the Federation “this is the right moment to outline the conclusions on the developments of the electoral process carried out in 2018, where we must analyze the norms, processes, performance and the behavior of the political actors and our decision regarding the electoral justice system.”