Zuckermann on Electoral Reform

Excelsior's Leo Zuckermann has written a couple of good recent columns about flaws with Mexico's electoral reform.

This from Friday, about the prohibition on negative campaigning:

The attacks between candidates are intrinsic to electoral competition. To a candidate who is behind in the polls and who doesn't move up with a positive campaign, the only chance he has to win is to criticize his adversary. Nevertheless, the parties prohibited in the Constitution the airing of negative radio and television spots. Huge error. Now the attacks will be anonymous and therefore more virulent. Under the previous system, at least we knew that the panistas were the ones who said that López Obrador was a danger for Mexico and that the perredistas claimed that Calderón had signed Fobaproa [a notorious bank bailout boondoggle]. But now, the attacks will be unsigned.

Zuckermann goes on to talk about series of ads (aired on Youtube) in the just finished Nayarit campaign that have marked a new low for negative politics in Mexico. One other thing that Zuckermann implies but doesn't say: taking stock of a candidate's (or any person's) negative qualities is essential to making a determination about them. If you stick only to the positive stuff, you're getting at best half the picture. An electorate deserves to know what the candidates' defects are, and how serious a role they may play in his or her administration. Since no candidate is going to go on at length about his own flaws, than it falls to his opponent to enlighten the electorate. The electoral reform makes it a lot harder for Mexican voters to make an informed decision.

More on today's column from Zuckermann later; this seems like a long enough post already.