Too much democracy?

Voter confusion reigned Sunday as midterm elections were held throughout Mexico, on the whole, in a peaceful way, as expected.

Confusion did not stem from organization nor the fact that voters are not intelligent or ill-informed, but from the proliferation of political parties supporting the candidacies of thousands of hopefuls for deputies, mayors and governors.

A total of eight parties are contending in this race. So in any given district, municipality and/or borough, you have eight candidates to choose from.

Lead editorial, The [Mexico City] News (06 July 2009)

Not quite true (most districts had two or three candidates) but I expect we’ll be hearing this argument again, if the null vote campaign gets going, with its goal of allowing un-affliated candidates on the ballot.

And one election update:  while PRI swept the legislative elections in Sonora, it does look like the PAN candidate, Guillermo Padrés Elías, has won the governorship.  Although, of course, the out-going governor, Eduardo Bours Castelo, was not up for re-election, PAN blamed Bours — and by extention — PRI control of the governor’s office —  for the conditions that led to the Hermosillo day-care fire.