Ackerman, John Mill --- "When transparency meets politics: the case of Mexico’s electoral ballots" [2014] ELECD 643; in Ala’i, Padideh; Vaughn, G. Robert (eds), "Research Handbook on Transparency" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) 185

Book Title: Research Handbook on Transparency

Editor(s): Ala’i, Padideh; Vaughn, G. Robert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781007938

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: When transparency meets politics: the case of Mexico’s electoral ballots

Author(s): Ackerman, John Mill

Number of pages: 30

Abstract/Description:

The refusal to provide citizen access to the electoral ballots used in Mexico’s hotly contested 2006 presidential elections is an excellent case study of how public authorities can use the “rule of law” to subordinate transparency to political concerns. Mexico theoretically has one of the most highly developed access-to-information regimes and systems of electoral law in the world. But in this case, the sophisticated system of specialized institutional oversight and checks and balances was used to nullify citizen rights and violate due process rather than to guarantee them. If in such a context the authorities are willing to bend the law in order to protect political concerns from the risks of “overexposure,” the risks are even higher in other regimes where the legal framework for accountability is less highly developed, as is the case in most of the so-called “developed” world. This historic case stands as a warning against complacency in the advancement of freedom of information (FOI) laws throughout the globe and as a cautionary tale in favor of including direct citizen control and participation mechanisms in oversight bodies and procedures. The 2006 Mexican presidential election was decided by only 0.56 percent, or 233,000 of approximately 41 million votes cast.