Hoots, Whistles, Shouting Matches Rock Chamber of Deputies : Wrangling Marks Start of Mexico’s Vote Ratification

MEXICO CITY — In the beginning, the ruling-party congressmen were jovial, chatting and sipping coffee beside their high-backed leather chairs trimmed in gold. Smiles glimmered beneath the immense crystal chandelier, and the hall filled with the sound of back slapping--an essential ingredient of the Mexican political embrace.

But before long, greetings gave way to hoots and whistles, shouting matches and a vote boycott by an opposition feeling its oats. The Chamber of Deputies, once the secure domain of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, suddenly is sharply divided and an arena for Mexico’s new competitive politics.

Wrangling from early Monday into the wee hours Tuesday, the federal deputies met as the Electoral College to ratify last month’s national elections, in which the governing party, known as PRI, won a narrow majority.

New Kind of Job

The marathon session gave PRI deputies a taste of what is in store for the next six years: Rather than enjoy what used to be widely known as an cushy job in a rubber-stamp Congress, deputies are going to have to earn their pay.

The Electoral College has until Aug. 30 to certify its own election as the Chamber of Deputies. Until then, the opposition will try to reduce the PRI’s 20-seat majority in the 500-member Congress, granted by the Federal Electoral Commission, by proving cases of fraud. In September, the deputies will certify the results of the presidential election.

According to the commission, PRI candidate Carlos Salinas de Gortari won the presidential election with 50.36% of the vote--the narrowest margin ever in the PRI’s 60 years of rule. But both the rightist National Action Party and the leftist coalition backing PRI dissident Cuauhtemoc Cardenas accuse the government of fraud.

More Protests Promised

Cardenas supporters packed the plaza in front of the Congress building during the Electoral College’s opening session and have promised to continue their protests for the next two weeks. Speaking from the steps of the Congress, Cardenas appealed to the deputies to “clean up the elections.”

Inside the grand chamber, the installation ceremony erupted in boos from the opposition when back-room negotiations broke down and PRI officials tried to force through a slate of their own candidates to run the Electoral College and the commissions that will oversee the canvass.

“Viva Cardenas!” opposition deputies shouted from the floor while pounding on their wooden desks.

Unfortunately for the PRI, their opponent’s first name also is splayed in giant brass letters across the national seal at the front of the chamber. Cuauhtemoc was the last Aztec chief killed fighting the Spanish conquerors.

‘You’re Corrupt! Fascists!’

“Welcome to the opposition,” Cardenas supporters cried gleefully at the PRI deputies, leading their raucous followers in chants from the galleries. And, they yelled, “You’re corrupt! Fascists!”

Some PRI deputies slumped down in their chairs with newspapers, waiting patiently for the political storm to pass, while others grew tight-lipped and tugged angrily at their lapels. A few led their own cheers of “Salinas is president!”

“This is a provocation and beyond all parliamentary norms,” said Gonzalo Martinez Corbala, a seasoned PRI deputy.

Dressed in an elegant gray suit with a gold pocket chain and drawing on a cigar, Martinez added, “They are holding a political meeting here. The only possible response from us is serenity. We are not trying to push them aside, but we do still have the majority--and in any country in the world, the majority runs Congress.”

As for the next six years, he observed: “This is not very promising.”

Despite the tension, however, there was no show of force by the government, no need for soldiers or armed guards, as in other Latin American countries. And downstairs in the cafeteria, political rivals stood in the same food line.

One fray broke out in the chamber when Rafael Aguilar Talamantes, leader of the Cardenas faction, asked for the floor and was denied it by outgoing president Socrates Rizzo on the grounds that he had not yet installed the new Electoral College and that members therefore had no right to speak.

Back-Room Talks

After a shouting match and battle for the microphone amid a crush of journalists, Rizzo called for one of many recesses and a back-room negotiation.

In the end, the opposition got to speak and the PRI got its vote. The opposition abstained, tearing up their ballots in protest, and the PRI elected its members to all the leadership posts.