• FLAWED PROCESS: Without any kind of voting controls, Baja California’s local Congress organized Sunday a controversial ballot measure seeking that would in effect extend incoming Governor Jaime Bonilla’s term to a total of 5 years instead of the 2 years he was originally elected to serve.
• CONTEXT: Baja California is Mexico’s northernmost State (pop. 3.3 million). In July, Baja’s Congress passed a controversial law that pushed the end of Governor-Elect Bonilla’s term from 2021 to 2024. Bonilla -who run under the Morena party banner- is scheduled to take power in November.
• NO CONTROLS: “The only thing we have is a sheet of paper where to write name and address. This is a citizenship exercise”, said Hector Durazo, a precinct chief in Tijuana, when asked about what kind of voting controls were applied; in the end Mexico’s Supreme Court may have the final word.
• NOT TO FORGET: Baja California holds a place dear in Mexico’s democratic history given that in 1989 it was the first State where a party different to the then dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won the Governorship since that party’s birth in 1929.
