1994 Mexican general election

None February 2022 Mexico 21 August 1994 yes Presidential election presidential 1988 Mexican general election 1988 2000 Mexican general election 2000 77.16% ( 25.15pp) 130x130px Ernesto Zedillo in 1996.jpg Ernesto Zedillo Institutional Revolutionary Party 17,181,651 50.13% Diego Fernández de Cevallos 1994 (cropped 3x4).jpg Diego Fernández de Cevallos National Action Party (Mexico) 9,146,841 26.69% Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (cropped 3x4).jpg Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Party of the Democratic Revolution 5,852,134 17.07% 300px Results by state 300px Results by constituency 300px Results by municipality 300px #50B86D Zedillo (49403) #4E8AD2 Fernández (6931) #F2C800 Cárdenas (4368) #E62020 Soto (60) #2ECC8F González (1) #FF8732 Aguilar (32) #B34B2B Pérez (13) #7F44BB Lombardo (7) #6a5a5a Madero (3) #c7c7c7 Tie (173) #9A9A9A No data (10203) Results by precinct 1 President Carlos Salinas de Gortari Institutional Revolutionary Party Ernesto Zedillo Institutional Revolutionary Party yes Senate 96 of the 128 seats in the Senate of the Republic 65 1991 1997 Institutional Revolutionary Party Ignacio Pichardo Pagaza 50.24 95 61 National Action Party (Mexico) Carlos Castillo Peraza 25.73 25 1 Party of the Democratic Revolution Porfirio Muñoz Ledo 16.83 8 2 Elecciones al Senado de México de 1994 por entidad federativa.svg Results by state yes Chamber of Deputies 1991 1997 All 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 251 Institutional Revolutionary Party Ignacio Pichardo Pagaza 50.28 300 320 National Action Party (Mexico) Carlos Castillo Peraza 25.77 119 89 Party of the Democratic Revolution Porfirio Muñoz Ledo 16.71 71 41 Labor Party (Mexico) Alberto Anaya 2.65 10 0 General elections were held in Mexico on 21 August 1994.Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p453 978-0-19-928357-6 The presidential elections resulted in a victory for Ernesto Zedillo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), whilst the PRI won 300 of the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 95 of the 128 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout ranged from 77.4% in the proportional representation section of the Chamber elections to 75.9% in the constituency section. The presidential elections were the first in Mexico to be monitored by international observers. Turnout was just over 77% of those eligible. To date, the 1994 elections mark the last time a presidential candidate won in all 31 states and Mexico City. Although tension did not reach the level it did around the 1988 election, most political analysts agree that voters (in the aftermath of the Zapatista uprising that began in January and the assassination of the original PRI candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio), opted for continuity by allowing the PRI to remain in power, fearing that the country might otherwise be destabilized. While the election itself was generally considered clean, with no major irregularities, there was much criticism directed at the inequity of the campaigns, with the ruling PRI having a disproportionate advantage in regards to campaign financing and mass media exposure. Background The 1994 elections took place in an atmosphere of political instability after the rise of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) on 1 January that year. The insurgency was a serious hit on the image that the Government wanted to portray of a developed, advanced country, and it highlighted the negative effects of the neoliberal reforms enacted by the Salinas administration. In the previous six years, the right-wing opposition Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) had won many state elections, and was seen as a serious contender for the presidency in 1994. On the other hand, the left-wing Partido de la Revolucion Democratica (PRD), while building a wide social base, had failed to win any state governorship, which its leaders blamed on repression and electoral fraud by the PRI-controlled federal government. Campaign Nominations 250px|left|thumb|Items from the Fernández de Cevallos (PAN) and Cárdenas (PMS) campaigns Outgoing President Carlos Salinas de Gortari chose his Secretary of Social Development, Luis Donaldo Colosio, to be the PRI presidential candidate. Salinas' choice sparked a brief internal conflict in the government, as Manuel Camacho Solís, who was then Mayor of Mexico City, had expected himself to be the PRI candidate, and quit his position in protest. President Salinas immediately appointed Camacho as Minister of Foreign Relations to hide the conflict, and tried to appease him. In the aftermath of the Zapatista uprising, Camacho was designated Peace Commissioner in Chiapas. The PAN chose Diego Fernández de Cevallos as their candidate through an internal convention. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas ran for the presidency once again, this time as the candidate of the PRD, the party he founded in 1989. Six other parties presented their candidates. Early campaign 250px|thumb|Colosio campaign items 250px|left|thumb|Colosio campaign buttons In the initial months of the campaign, PRI candidate Colosio expressed dissatisfaction with his campaign management, as polls indicated his popular support was far lower than earlier PRI candidates. Colosio's campaign lacked funding and had problems getting media coverage in the wake of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas. Due to this poor performance, the PRI leadership considered replacing Colosio as the presidential candidate. At the same time, Camacho's popularity was rising due to his role as mediator in the Zapatista conflict, and it was rumoured that he might replace Colosio as the presidential candidate. At one point, President Salinas had to state to the media "Don't get confused, Colosio is the candidate". Due to his campaign's underperformance, Colosio tried to distance himself from the outgoing President. On 6 March 1994, the anniversary of the PRI's founding, Colosio broke with Salinas in a controversial-but-popular speech in front of the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City. In his speech, Colosio spoke against government abuse, and in support of indigenous peoples and the people's independence from government. The speech was controversial, as it echoed many of the beliefs of the EZLN platform.Discurso de Luis Donaldo Colosio, durante el acto conmemorativo del LXV Aniversario del PRI en el Monumento a la Revolución. Marzo 6, 1994 On 22 March, Camacho himself stated that he was not interested in being the PRI candidate, instead focusing on the Chiapas conflict. The day after Camacho's statement, Colosio was killed. Assassination of Colosio 150px|left|thumb|Water bottles from the Colosio, Fernández de Cevallos and Zedillo campaigns. At 5:05 PM PST on 23 March, at a campaign rally in Lomas Taurinas, a poor neighborhood of Tijuana, Colosio was shot in the head with a .38 Special by Mario Aburto Martínez at a distance of a few centimeters. Colosio collapsed and was rushed to the city's main hospital after plans to fly him to an American hospital were cancelled. His death was announced a few hours later amid inconsistent eyewitness reports. The assassination of Colosio was the first magnicide to occur in Mexico since the murder of Álvaro Obregón in 1928. The assassination had a profound impact on Mexican public opinion, already tumultuous by the conflict in Chiapas. Many conspiracy theories about the assassination persist, including that it was orchestrated by drug traffickers.Patenostro, Silvana. "Mexico as a Narco-democracy." World Policy Journal 12.1 (1995): 41-47. However, the most accepted theory among the Mexican people is that he was betrayed by his party and that the murder was orchestrated by high members of PRI, including President Salinas, as Colosio had begun to reject Salinas's political agenda.February 2020 The assassin, Mario Aburto Martínez The shooter, Mario Aburto Martínez, was arrested at the site and never wavered from his story that he had acted alone. Nonetheless, many theories still surround the assassination. The authorities were criticized for their handling of Aburto, unusual for a detained suspect, having been shaved, bathed, and given a prison haircut before showing him to the media, which started rumors about whether a man who looked so different from the one arrested was really the murderer. Colosio received three bullet wounds, and it was never clear if they could have been done by a single person or not. The case was officially closed after many prosecutors investigated it, but after the many mishandlings of the investigation and contradictory versions, the controversy continues.December 2020 Aburto remains imprisoned at the high-security La Palma facility in Almoloya de Juárez. Selection of the new PRI candidate 250px|thumb|Zedillo campaign buttons 250px|thumb|Zedillo campaign items 250px|thumb|A ticket for a fundraising raffle for the Cevallos campaign President Salinas declared three days of national mourning after Colosio's death, while all the opposition candidates lamented the assassination and called for an end to political violence. In the aftermath, many PRI members sought to replace the dead candidate. In the end, President Salinas chose Ernesto Zedillo, who had been Colosio's campaign manager, as the new PRI presidential candidate. Zedillo had been Secretary of Education, a relatively unimportant ministry; he had resigned to run the campaign of Colosio. Zedillo had never held elective office, sharing that trait with many previous presidents, but Zedillo was not otherwise politically experienced. He was perceived as a weak candidate. It was speculated that Salinas wished to perpetuate his power as Plutarco Elías Calles had in the wake of the 1928 assassination of president-elect Alvaro Obregón, controlling successor presidents.Thomas Legler, "Ernesto Zedillo" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 1641 Televised debates 250px|thumb|A Zedillo campaign hat, featuring his campaign's motto: "Well being for your family" 250px|thumb|A Cárdenas campaign hat For the first time in Mexican history, the 1994 campaign featured televised debates between the Presidential candidates. On 12 May, the three main contenders Zedillo, Fernández de Cevallos, and Cárdenas participated in the first Presidential debate in Mexican history. An estimated audience of 34 million watched the debate. Polls after the debate indicated that the PAN candidate, Diego Fernández de Cevallos, had defeated the other two candidates, and had become capable of defeating the PRI candidate in the elections.Heverg Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Ernesto Zedillo y Diego Fernández de Cevallos, protagonizaron el primer debate entre candidatos presidenciales en México hace 20 años. https://plumasatomicas.com/noticias/mexico/el-gran-debate-de-1994-cardenas-cevallos-y-zedillo/ Plumas Atómicas 13 May 2014 13 May 2019 A phone survey carried out by the Oficina de la Presidencia de la República Mexicana after the debate shows the widespread perception of Cevallos' victory in the debate, as well as Zedillo's lackluster performance and the appalling reception of Cárdenas' performance: + "Who do you think won the debate?" Candidate % Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano 1.9% Diego Fernández de Cevallos 54.6% Ernesto Zedillo 16.9% No one / doesn't know / didn't watch the debate 26.6%Survey taken from the Acervo de Opinión Pública de la Oficina de la Presidencia de la República Mexicana of the CIDEDebate entre candidatos del Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Partido Acción Nacional y Partido de la Revolución Democrática http://datos.cide.edu/handle/10089/160 Oficina de la Presidencia de la República Mexicana 24 May 1994 3 March 2022 However, in the aftermath of the debate, Fernández de Cevallos seemed to decrease his media presence, and Zedillo continued in the first place at the polls; on the other hand, the polls also indicated that Zedillo might win with less than 50% of the popular vote, something unprecedented for a PRI candidate (notwithstanding previous controversial elections in which the PRI was accused of fraud). After the 12 May debate between the main three contenders, there was also a debate between the Presidential candidates of smaller parties. Opinion polls Poll source Date PRI PAN PRD Others Undecided Sample Ref.GEO/ETC24 January 199449%8%13%2%28%1,100Kuschik Murilo México: elecciones y el uso de las encuestas preelectorales April 2002 Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales 116 http://revistas.unam.mx/index.php/rmcpys/article/viewFile/48332/43443 2 September 2019GEO/ETC20 March 199449%10%12%5%24%1,10023 March - Assassination of Luis Donaldo ColosioGEO/ETC10 April 199446%10%12%7%26%1,10012 May - First presidential debate in Mexican historyV. Voto17 May 199448%26%9%4%13%1,500GEO/ETC22 May 199439%26%12%6%18%1,100Reforma6 June 199441%29%9%3%18%2,200V. Voto18 June 199441%21%8%2%28%1,500CNA/EPI19 June 199452%29%8%3%8%1,500GEO/ETC19 June 199444%24%11%8%13%1,100CNIRT7 July 199443%22%10%4%21%2,500GEO/ETC19 July 199447%17%11%8%17%1,100V. Voto28 July 199447%17%8%3%25%1,500Reforma29 July 199447%17%9%2%25%2,000El País1 August 199440%21%11%6%22%1,500Belden3 August 199446%19%9%8%18%1,500CNIRT7 August 199444%19%11%4%22%2,500GEO/ETC7 August 199442%24%11%5%19%1,100 Results President Ernesto Zedillo Institutional Revolutionary Party 17181651 Diego Fernández de Cevallos National Action Party 9146841 Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano Party of the Democratic Revolution 5852134 Cecilia Soto González Labor Party 970121 Jorge González Torres Ecologist Green Party of Mexico 327313 Rafael Aguilar Talamantes Party of the Cardenist Front of National Reconstruction 297901 Álvaro Pérez Treviño Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution 192795 Marcela Lombardo Otero Popular Socialist Party 166594 Pablo Emilio Madero Mexican Democratic Party 97935 Write-ins 43715 1008291 45729053 Instituto Federal Electoral By state Based on the official results of the Federal Electoral Institute. State Zedillo Cevallos Cárdenas Soto González Aguilar Pérez Lombardo Madero Write-in Invalid/blankAguascalientes157,736124,48429,2366,5183,7946,6101,3201,2711,0481367,463Baja California402,332297,56568,66915,9537,8533,3992,0443,0881,3101,88218,393 Baja California Sur80,09746,9079,4633,905786564386324242352,580 Campeche123,22541,91047,6402,9357201,1393,2411,0513844336,328Chiapas493,135126,266347,98119,3814,27417,4047,2556,1831,3483,49563,987Chihuahua660,874308,59068,25139,9015,1023,6152,7023,3001,42464028,751Coahuila359,168226,62197,12117,9543,15714,7605,0882,35581642015,582Colima102,90360,33824,1572,8821,3163,4484246271,2475485,354Distrito Federal1,873,0591,172,438902,199185,90391,83937,37015,40219,08412,2467,15798,706Durango266,837141,81849,79343,3512,4662,7121,9502,18154560213,833Guanajuato945,088513,865149,26832,76310,90613,83810,0316,69114,6852,87357,808Guerrero385,59074,198266,8189,1682,95113,4857,0374,3002,6341,05725,973Hidalgo450,800134,171115,69314,9884,9928,6687,2533,4421,10779429,754Jalisco1,050,8151,008,234166,22647,85420,02317,46411,5669,52811,2893,18159,081México2,143,1221,179,422835,135150,18682,17145,38522,07526,05314,1934,481114,214Michoacán612,040212,921493,23617,7297,6068,5428,5844,2936,1601,13036,124Morelos282,821128,942109,56014,3996,5095,8453,2492,0731,3051,07514,063Nayarit179,41159,92550,7178,8621,2431,7581,6612,3943107759,031 Nuevo León723,629596,82044,41389,3875,8602,9172,8742,4092,1442,19331,091 Oaxaca509,776131,225276,75817,2215,0449,66512,80310,8161,44589144,163Puebla787,493399,942216,20037,14113,26311,75010,8509,4932,8851,19661,865Querétaro275,788149,54026,96911,0772,9373,1221,5722,1271,55423114,419Quintana Roo112,54662,00626,3012,6651,3041,5509021,026174805,522San Luis Potosí440,601196,35173,52319,7054,5462,9803,7012,5373,19299626,783Sinaloa474,882285,207129,02512,0593,9822,9734,3834,09858083520,680Sonora361,835330,272111,97833,1182,7782,6981,6461,7419611,06617,745Tabasco335,85144,763196,1005,8321,5833,1581,6451,56339929322,427Tamaulipas481,595275,989192,90023,9165,1555,30720,5023,3011,6041,35730,058Tlaxcala186,12684,58254,0297,7992,8622,1201,8192,1381,8871149,681Veracruz1,360,540419,109612,35450,49216,34240,82516,12723,5087,8103,11593,331Yucatán251,699195,98615,0093,5832,1021,1277998673308410,429Zacatecas310,237116,43445,41221,4941,8471,7031,9042,73267755013,072Total17,181,6519,146,8415,852,134970,121327,313297,901192,795166,59497,93543,7151,008,291 Senate File:LVI Legislatura de México Senado.svg Won Not up Total +/– Institutional Revolutionary Party 17195536 64 31 95 +34 National Action Party 8805038 24 1 25 +24 Party of the Democratic Revolution 5759949 8 0 8 +6 Labor Party 977072 0 0 0 0 Party of the Cardenist Front of National Reconstruction 400019 0 0 0 0 Ecologist Green Party of Mexico 438941 0 0 0 0 Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution 269735 0 0 0 0 Popular Socialist Party 215673 0 0 0 0 Mexican Democratic Party 120419 0 0 0 0 Independents 42251 0 0 0 0 +64 1078198 45729053 Nohlen, IPU Chamber of Deputies File:Mexican Chamber of Deputies 1994.svg Party-list Constituency Institutional Revolutionary Party 17236836 23 16851082 277 300 –20 National Action Party 8833468 101 8664384 18 119 30 Party of the Democratic Revolution 5728733 66 5590391 5 71 30 Labor Party 909251 10 896426 0 10 10 Ecologist Green Party of Mexico 479594 0 470951 0 0 0 Party of the Cardenist Front of National Reconstruction 390402 0 379960 0 0 –23 Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution 290489 0 285526 0 0 –15 Popular Socialist Party 239371 0 231162 0 0 –12 Mexican Democratic Party 151100 0 148279 0 0 0 Independents 21059 0 47749 0 0 0 1126381 1121006 0 45729053 45729053 Nohlen, IPU Aftermath Neither the opposition nor international observers denounced major irregularities in the election, and Zedillo's victory was mostly accepted as definitive. However, there was considerable criticism towards the inequity regarding campaign financing and media exposure, both of which disproportionately favoured the PRI: the PRI alone was responsible for 78.3% of the reported campaign expenses in 1994, while the PAN was responsible for 10.4% and the PRD for 1.52% of said expenses.Casar Pérez María Amparo Dinero bajo la mesa: Financiamiento y gasto ilegal de las campañas políticas en México 2019 Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial México 978-6073173544 https://books.google.com/books?id=MwGHDwAAQBAJ&dq=zedillo%20legales%20pero%20NO%20Equitativas&pg=PT19 6 March 2022 Zedillo himself stated, during an international tour in 1995, that the election which had brought him into the Presidency had been "legal, but unequal".Ortiz Pinchetti José Agustín Desarraigar el fraude electoral https://archivos.juridicas.unam.mx/www/bjv/libros/14/6646/12.pdf Acervo de la Biblioteca Jurídica Virtual del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM 6 March 2022Aguayo Quezada Sergio Vuelta en U 2007 Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial México 978-6071108524 https://books.google.com/books?id=nzJBX49SaK0C&dq=zedillo%20legales%20pero%20inequitativas&pg=PT96 6 March 2022Rock Roberto Edomex: elecciones clave, pero no equitativas https://lasillarota.com/opinion/columnas/edomex-elecciones-clave-pero-no-equitativas/145526 6 March 2022 La Silla Rota 24 April 2017 PAN candidate Diego Fernández de Cevallos would later say that he hadn't been defeated by Zedillo, but "by [President] Salinas and Televisa".Entrevista a Diego Fernández de Cevallos Revista Mexicana de Derecho Electoral 2012 2 10.22201/iij.24487910e.2012.2.9993 https://revistas.juridicas.unam.mx/index.php/derecho-electoral/article/view/9993/12021 6 March 2022 Fernández De Cevallos Diego 1 free Subsequent political and electoral reforms sought to provide clear rules for campaign financing, as well as less unequal access to the mass media for the opposition parties. See also History of Mexico References General Category:Legislative elections in Mexico Category:Presidential elections in Mexico General