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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2005 
Lawmakers to Continue Debate on Migrant Vote
 Wire services
| | If an agreement is not reached by July, the measure could be scuttled. |
Mexico City – Congress has called a special session to take up the issue of Mexicans voting abroad, but the proposal still faces potential hurdles ahead of a July 1 deadline for approval, a leading legislator said Thursday.
Members of the lower house agreed to open the special session on June 21, leaving it only about 9 days to work out disagreements over methods for migrants living outside Mexico the overwhelming majority in the United States to vote.
They are already guaranteed that right, but in practice have had to return to their country to cast a ballot.
By law, any changes in electoral regulations must be approved one year before the next election cycle. Mexicans will go to the polls to choose a president on July 2, 2006.
Earlier, the Senate approved a mail-in ballot system. If the house endorses that proposal, the bill could be sent directly to President Vicente Fox for his signature, said Rep. José Antonio de la Vega of Fox's National Action Party.
But if the house wants to make any changes, the Senate would also have to be called into a special session.
De la Vega expressed confidence that, despite the tight time frame, the bill can be saved.
"The political parties have expressed the intention and the will to get this bill approved," de la Vega said.
Also to be taken up in the special session that replaces part of a summer recess are details of part of the 2006 budget that had been challenged in the Supreme Court, and bills to reform the stock market laws and criminal justice system.
The Senate bill would require potential voters to have valid voter registration cards issued in Mexico, something only about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million Mexicans living abroad have.
It would also require potential voters to request a ballot in writing.
Voters would have to solicit ballots by sending a letter with a copy of their voter registry card, their address abroad and signature to Mexican electoral authorities between Oct. 1 and Jan. 15, 2006.
In February, the house approved a more ambitious plan for setting up voting booths abroad, but the Senate changed it amid concerns about the expense and difficulty of such an undertaking.
Mexicans living abroad were granted the right to vote and hold dual citizenship years ago, but they have been prevented from voting by the lack of an absentee ballot system. |
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