A History of Presidential Elections

I have mentioned before the curious museum known as MODO, Museo del Objeto del Objeto (Museum of the Object of the Object).  It has a vast archive of over 140 thousand everyday objects from Mexico dating from the early 19th century to the present day.  The museum is located in an art nouveau house built in 1906 in the neighborhood of Roma.

Obviously, the building is not big enough to display the entire collection, so each year several themed exhibits are held which draw from the collection.  The current exhibit is called "El Voto en México" (The Vote in Mexico), a very timely topic, since today the Presidential election is being held.  Last week I visited the museum.

The exhibit contains a wide array of campaign memorabilia going back to 1910.

The front pages of newspapers

Tee-shirts to proudly wear for your favorite candidate

Water bottles as campaign advertising

Baseball caps emblazoned with your choice for President

Shopping bags

Alejandro's family has received a number of them this year, even from candidates they do not favor.

The exhibit analyzes Presidential elections since 1910.  In that year General Porfirio Díaz announced that he would once again run as President.  He had occupied the position since 1884 and had amended the constitution so that he could serve an unlimited number of terms.  In each election he won by an implausibly wide margin.

In 1910 Francisco Madero formed the Anti-Reelectionist Party and announced that he would run against Díaz.

Campaign buttons from the 1910 campaign

Díaz threw the increasingly popular Madero in jail and declared himself the winner of the election.  This sparked the Mexican Revolution.  Díaz was forced into exile, and new elections were held in 1911.  Madero was elected President.

  
Madero served a little over a year when counter-revolutionary forces arrested and murdered him.  The reins of power were taken over by Victoriano Huerta, a ruthless general from the Díaz administration.  He only lasted a year and a half before he was deposed by revolutionary armies.  This ushered in an era glossed over in the exhibit as a period of provisional Presidents, generals of the Revolution, and puppet Presidents as head of state.

In 1934 Lázaro Cárdenas was elected President.  He established the National Revolutionary Party, which was later renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).  PRI was to control Mexico for over 65 years, winning every Presidential election either legitimately or by fraud.

Photos of the Cárdenas campaign in various states

Cárdenas won the election with an amazing (suspicious?) 98% percent of the vote.  In his defense, he remains one of the most popular 20th century Presidents, and he was one of the few who did not use the Presidency to enrich himself.  His term was marked by the distribution of land to the peasants and the nationalization of the oil industry.  He was the first to serve one six-year term with no reelection, as set out in the Mexican Constitution.

In 1940, Manuel Avila Camacho won the election with almost 94%.  His most noteworthy accomplishment was the establishment of the Mexican Social Security system.

  

In 1946, Miguel Alemán won with 76% of the vote. He was the first of a new generation of politicians who had not participated in the Mexican revolution.  Mexico experienced rapid industrialization during his administration, although his six years in office were marked by corruption scandals.  It was during his Presidency that the ruling party changed its name to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

In 1952 PRI continued its control of the government with the election of Adolfo Ruíz Cortines.

It was in this election that the conservative National Action Party (PAN) first participated in an election.  PAN would eventually become PRI's major opposition.  However, in this election, another party called the Federation of the Mexican People's Parties was a significant threat to PRI's dominance, and gained the support of those who wanted a multi-party democracy.

The official tally showed PRI garnering over 74% of the vote, the Federation of the Mexican People's Parties with almost 16%, and PAN with almost 8%.  When the Federation protested electoral fraud, the government quashed the protests, and reportedly 200 people were killed.

In 1956 PRI's candidate, Adolfo Lopez Mateos won with almost 90% against PAN's 9.5%.  He is praised for his economic policies but criticized for his suppression of opposition groups.

In 1964 PRI's candidate Gustavo Díaz Ordaz was elected with 87% as opposed to PAN´s 11%.

He is one of the most reviled Presidents in modern history for his role in the murder of hundreds of student protestors in the infamous Tlatelolco massacre of 1968.

In 1970 Luis Echevarría won with 83%.  His PAN opponent received nearly 14% of the vote.

Echeverría's legacy is also tainted by the fact that he was Secretary of the Interior during the Díaz Ordaz Presidency, and he had a role in the Tlatelolco massacre.  His own administration was also marked by repression and the lesser-known Corpus Christi massacre of student protestors in 1971.

You can see that elections were empty rituals to install the next PRI President.  This reached a crisis point in 1976 with the election of José López Portillo.

No opposition candidates were registered.  The Communist Party ran an unregistered candidate but all votes for him were annulled.  Thus, López Portillo won with 100% of the vote.  Public dissatisfaction with the system led to the passage of an electoral reform bill, the first of several which would over the course of the next decades would lead to a multi-party democracy.  

The López Portillo administration was marked by nepotism and corruption, and, at the end of his term, a drop in the price of petroleum led to a debt crisis which forced Mexico to declare default.

The election of 1982 saw a number of opposition parties registered.  The candidate for PRI, Miguel de la Madrid, won 71% of the vote, while PAN got over 15%.

De la Madrid continued to face negative economic growth and inflation.  He was criticized for his slow response in the disastrous Mexico City earthquake of 1985.  Public confidence in PRI was continuing to erode.

The election of 1988 saw PRI's political dominance threatened for the first time.  The PRI candidate was Carlos Salinas de Gotari.  

Opposing him was Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas, the son of former President Lázaro Cárdenas,  He formed the National Democratic Front.

The PAN candidate was businessman Manuel Clouthier.

There was a computer crash of the system being used to count the votes.  When the system was restored, Salinas de Gotari was declared the winner.  Cárdenas and Clouthier both claimed election fraud.  It is possible that PRI actually won, but even the official results show PRI with the lowest percentage in its political history... Salinas de Gotari with 50.36%, Cárdenas with 31.12% and Clouthier with 17.07%.  The public now saw that perhaps it was possible to defeat PRI.

The 1994 election was also controversial.  The PRI candidate was Luis Donaldo Colosio.  Colosio was assassinated during a campaign rally.  Although the assassin claims he acted alone, there are numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the murder.  Because the Constitution states that a Presidential candidate cannot hold office for six months before the election, PRI had to scramble for a replacement candidate.  Ernesto Zedillo, a former Minister of Education, who was Colosio's campaign manager was chosen.

In a crowded field of candidates, Zedillo won with 48.69% of the vote.  (The Mexican Constitution does not require the winner to have a majority.)  PAN received 29.52%. Cuahtemoc Cárdenas ran again but only got 16.59% this time.  Once again, PRI looked very vulnerable.

2000 was a truly historic election, because for the first time PRI lost.  The candidate for PAN, Vicente Fox won with over 42%.

 

PRI's candidate received 36%, and Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas in his third run got 12%.

PAN continued its winning streak in 2006 with the election of Felipe Calderón. but amid a crowded field, he only received 35.91% of the vote.

Right behind Calderón, with 35.29% was the former mayor of Mexico City, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO).  AMLO contested the election, declared himself the provisional President and staged massive demonstrations.  He called for a complete recount, but the National Electoral Tribunal confirmed Calderón's narrow victory.

2012 saw the return of PRI in coalition with the Partido Verde (Green Party) with the election of Enrique Peña Nieto.  He received 38% of the vote.

  

AMLO tried running again with a coalition of parties, but only received 31% of the vote.  Once again AMLO protested and charged PRI of vote buying (and there were indeed videos of voters being given gift cards).  Once again, the electoral tribunal ruled against him.

Peña Nieto's term proved to be a disaster with numerous scandals and the kidnapping and murder of 43 student activists from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College that sparked nationwide protests.

In 2018 AMLO created a coalition of parties under the name of Morena (Movement of National Regeneration).  On his third try, AMLO won decisively with 53% to 22% for PAN and a measly 16% for the once all-powerful PRI.

  

This has turned out to be perhaps the longest entry I have posted on the blog.  As I write this the people of Mexico are lining up at the polling stations.  Morena is expected to continue in power, but with three major Presidential candidates, it will be interesting to see whether or not Morena is able to win a majority of the votes, or only a plurality.