In a controversial, chaotic and contested primary election, Fernando Guzman Perez has won the nomination of the incumbent National Action Party (PAN) for governor of Jalisco.
With results in from 120 of the 125 municipalities, Guzman won 39.35 percent of the vote, Hernan Cortes claimed 31.99 percent and former Guadalajara mayor Alfonso Petersen received just 28.35 percent. However, Petersen has refused to recognize the outcome and has raised a legal challenge over the organizational problems he says dissuaded people from voting.
It was supposed to be the most democratic primary the PAN has conducted in Jalisco, with the party holding an unprecedented election open to the general public and not just party members (they voted for the party’s presidential candidate at the same time). Party president Miguel Ibarra hailed it as a sample “of the democracy that we cherish in the PAN, because we do not simulate elections like other political parties do.”
If this really was representative of panista democracy, it did not reflect well on the party. The election was a badly managed mess, in which turnout was low, voters experienced long lines, presidential candidates were missing from certain ballot papers, and even the organizers seemed unaware of who was allowed to vote.
From the outset the PAN experienced major problems across the state, with delays caused by the non-arrival of many polling officials. Both Guzman and Petersen complained about the delay in opening booths and slow voting, while Cortes even spoke of the alleged buying of votes in exchange for appliances in the municipality of Casimiro Castillo.
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