1994 Mexican general election
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Presidential election | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 77.16% ( 25.15 pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results by state | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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96 of the 128 seats in the Senate of the Republic 65 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 251 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. |
Mexico portal |
General elections were held in Mexico on 21 August 1994.[1] The presidential elections resulted in a victory for Ernesto Zedillo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), whilst the PRI won 300 of the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 95 of the 128 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout ranged from 77.4% in the proportional representation section of the Chamber elections to 75.9% in the constituency section.
These were the first presidential elections in Mexico that were monitored by international observers. Turnout was just over 77% of those eligible. To date, the 1994 elections mark the last time a presidential candidate won in all 31 states and Mexico City.
Although tension did not reach the level it did around the
Background
The 1994 election took place in an atmosphere of political instability after the rise of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) on 1 January that year. The insurgency was a serious hit on the image that the Government wanted to portray of a developed, advanced country, and it highlighted the negative effects of the neoliberal reforms enacted by the Salinas administration.
In the past six years, the right-wing opposition
Campaign
Nominations
Outgoing President
The PAN chose Diego Fernández de Cevallos as their candidate through an internal convention.
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas ran for the presidency once again, this time as the candidate of the PRD, the party he founded in 1989.
Six other parties presented their candidates.
Early campaign
In the initial months of the campaign, PRI candidate Colosio expressed dissatisfaction with his campaign management, as polls indicated his popular support was far lower than earlier PRI candidates. Colosio's campaign lacked funding and had problems getting media coverage in the wake of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas. Due to this poor performance, the PRI leadership considered replacing Colosio as the presidential candidate. At the same time, Camacho's popularity was rising due to his role as mediator in the Zapatista conflict, and it was rumoured that he might replace Colosio as the presidential candidate. At one point, President Salinas had to state to the media "Don't get confused, Colosio is the candidate".
Due to his campaign's underperformance, Colosio tried to distance himself from the outgoing President. On 6 March 1994, the anniversary of the PRI's founding, Colosio broke with Salinas in a controversial-but-popular speech in front of the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City. In his speech, Colosio spoke against government abuse, and in support of indigenous peoples and the people's independence from government. The speech was controversial, as it echoed many of the beliefs of the ZANL platform.[2]
On 22 March, Camacho himself stated that he was not interested in being the PRI candidate, instead focusing on the Chiapas conflict. The day after Camacho's statement, Colosio was killed.
Assassination of Colosio
At 5:05 PM
The assassination had a profound impact on Mexican public opinion, already tumultuous by the conflict in Chiapas.
Many conspiracy theories about the assassination persist, including that it was orchestrated by drug traffickers.[3] However, the most accepted theory among the Mexican people is that he was betrayed by his party and that the murder was orchestrated by high members of PRI, including President Salinas, as Colosio had begun to reject Salinas's political agenda.[citation needed]
The assassin, Mario Aburto Martínez
The shooter, Mario Aburto Martínez, was arrested at the site and never wavered from his story that he had acted alone. Nonetheless, many theories still surround the assassination. The authorities were criticized for their handling of Aburto, unusual for a detained suspect, having been shaved, bathed, and given a prison haircut before showing him to the media, which started rumors about whether a man who looked so different from the one arrested was really the murderer. Colosio received three bullet wounds, and it was never clear if they could have been done by a single person or not. The case was officially closed after many prosecutors investigated it, but after the many mishandlings of the investigation and contradictory versions, the controversy continues.[citation needed] Aburto remains imprisoned at the high-security La Palma facility in Almoloya de Juárez.
Selection of the new PRI candidate
President Salinas declared three days of national mourning after Colosio's death, while all the opposition candidates lamented the assassination and called for an end to political violence.
In the aftermath, many PRI members sought to replace the dead candidate. In the end, President Salinas chose
Televised debates
For the first time in Mexican history, the 1994 campaign featured televised debates between the Presidential candidates. On 12 May, the three main contenders Zedillo, Fernández de Cevallos, and Cárdenas participated in the first Presidential debate in Mexican history. An estimated audience of 34 million watched the debate. Polls after the debate indicated that the PAN candidate, Diego Fernández de Cevallos, had defeated the other two candidates, and had become capable of defeating the PRI candidate in the elections.[5]
A phone survey carried out by the Oficina de la Presidencia de la República Mexicana after the debate shows the widespread perception of Cevallos' victory in the debate, as well as Zedillo's lackluster performance and the appalling reception of Cárdenas' performance:
Candidate | % |
---|---|
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano | 1.9% |
Diego Fernández de Cevallos | 54.6% |
Ernesto Zedillo | 16.9% |
No one / doesn't know / didn't watch the debate | 26.6% |
Survey taken from the Acervo de Opinión Pública de la Oficina de la Presidencia de la República Mexicana of the CIDE[6] |
However, in the aftermath of the debate, Fernández de Cevallos seemed to decrease his media presence, and Zedillo continued in the first place at the polls; on the other hand, the polls also indicated that Zedillo might win with less than 50% of the popular vote, something unprecedented for a PRI candidate (notwithstanding previous controversial elections in which the PRI was accused of fraud).
After the 12 May debate between the main three contenders, there was also a debate between the Presidential candidates of smaller parties.
Opinion polls
Poll source | Date | PRI | PAN | PRD | Others | Undecided | Sample | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GEO/ETC | 24 January 1994 | 49% | 8% | 13% | 2% | 28% | 1,100 | [7] |
GEO/ETC | 20 March 1994 | 49% | 10% | 12% | 5% | 24% | 1,100 | |
23 March - Assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio | ||||||||
GEO/ETC | 10 April 1994 | 46% | 10% | 12% | 7% | 26% | 1,100 | |
12 May - First presidential debate in Mexican history | ||||||||
V. Voto | 17 May 1994 | 48% | 26% | 9% | 4% | 13% | 1,500 | |
GEO/ETC | 22 May 1994 | 39% | 26% | 12% | 6% | 18% | 1,100 | |
Reforma | 6 June 1994 | 41% | 29% | 9% | 3% | 18% | 2,200 | |
V. Voto | 18 June 1994 | 41% | 21% | 8% | 2% | 28% | 1,500 | |
CNA/EPI | 19 June 1994 | 52% | 29% | 8% | 3% | 8% | 1,500 | |
GEO/ETC | 19 June 1994 | 44% | 24% | 11% | 8% | 13% | 1,100 | |
CNIRT | 7 July 1994 | 43% | 22% | 10% | 4% | 21% | 2,500 | |
GEO/ETC | 19 July 1994 | 47% | 17% | 11% | 8% | 17% | 1,100 | |
V. Voto | 28 July 1994 | 47% | 17% | 8% | 3% | 25% | 1,500 | |
Reforma | 29 July 1994 | 47% | 17% | 9% | 2% | 25% | 2,000 | |
El País | 1 August 1994 | 40% | 21% | 11% | 6% | 22% | 1,500 | |
Belden | 3 August 1994 | 46% | 19% | 9% | 8% | 18% | 1,500 | |
CNIRT | 7 August 1994 | 44% | 19% | 11% | 4% | 22% | 2,500 | |
GEO/ETC | 7 August 1994 | 42% | 24% | 11% | 5% | 19% | 1,100 |
Results
President
Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano | Party of the Democratic Revolution | 5,852,134 | 17.07 | |
Cecilia Soto González | Labor Party | 970,121 | 2.83 | |
Jorge González Torres | Ecologist Green Party of Mexico | 327,313 | 0.95 | |
Rafael Aguilar Talamantes | Party of the Cardenist Front of National Reconstruction | 297,901 | 0.87 | |
Álvaro Pérez Treviño | Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution | 192,795 | 0.56 | |
Marcela Lombardo Otero | Popular Socialist Party | 166,594 | 0.49 | |
Pablo Emilio Madero | Mexican Democratic Party | 97,935 | 0.29 | |
Write-ins | 43,715 | 0.13 | ||
Total | 34,277,000 | 100.00 | ||
Valid votes | 34,277,000 | 97.14 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 1,008,291 | 2.86 | ||
Total votes | 35,285,291 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 45,729,053 | 77.16 | ||
Source: Instituto Federal Electoral |
By state
Based on the official results of the
State
|
Zedillo | Cevallos | Cárdenas | Soto
|
González | Aguilar | Pérez | Lombardo | Madero | Write-in
|
None |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aguascalientes | 157,736 | 124,484 | 29,236 | 6,518 | 3,794 | 6,610 | 1,320 | 1,271 | 1,048 | 136 | 7,463 |
Baja California | 402,332 | 297,565 | 68,669 | 15,953 | 7,853 | 3,399 | 2,044 | 3,088 | 1,310 | 1,882 | 18,393 |
Baja California Sur | 80,097 | 46,907 | 9,463 | 3,905 | 786 | 564 | 386 | 324 | 242 | 35 | 2,580 |
Campeche | 123,225 | 41,910 | 47,640 | 2,935 | 720 | 1,139 | 3,241 | 1,051 | 384 | 433 | 6,328 |
Chiapas | 493,135 | 126,266 | 347,981 | 19,381 | 4,274 | 17,404 | 7,255 | 6,183 | 1,348 | 3,495 | 63,987 |
Chihuahua | 660,874 | 308,590 | 68,251 | 39,901 | 5,102 | 3,615 | 2,702 | 3,300 | 1,424 | 640 | 28,751 |
Coahuila | 359,168 | 226,621 | 97,121 | 17,954 | 3,157 | 14,760 | 5,088 | 2,355 | 816 | 420 | 15,582 |
Colima | 102,903 | 60,338 | 24,157 | 2,882 | 1,316 | 3,448 | 424 | 627 | 1,247 | 548 | 5,354 |
Distrito Federal |
1,873,059 | 1,172,438 | 902,199 | 185,903 | 91,839 | 37,370 | 15,402 | 19,084 | 12,246 | 7,157 | 98,706 |
Durango | 266,837 | 141,818 | 49,793 | 43,351 | 2,466 | 2,712 | 1,950 | 2,181 | 545 | 602 | 13,833 |
Guanajuato | 945,088 | 513,865 | 149,268 | 32,763 | 10,906 | 13,838 | 10,031 | 6,691 | 14,685 | 2,873 | 57,808 |
Guerrero | 385,590 | 74,198 | 266,818 | 9,168 | 2,951 | 13,485 | 7,037 | 4,300 | 2,634 | 1,057 | 25,973 |
Hidalgo |
450,800 | 134,171 | 115,693 | 14,988 | 4,992 | 8,668 | 7,253 | 3,442 | 1,107 | 794 | 29,754 |
Jalisco | 1,050,815 | 1,008,234 | 166,226 | 47,854 | 20,023 | 17,464 | 11,566 | 9,528 | 11,289 | 3,181 | 59,081 |
México |
2,143,122 | 1,179,422 | 835,135 | 150,186 | 82,171 | 45,385 | 22,075 | 26,053 | 14,193 | 4,481 | 114,214 |
Michoacán | 612,040 | 212,921 | 493,236 | 17,729 | 7,606 | 8,542 | 8,584 | 4,293 | 6,160 | 1,130 | 36,124 |
Morelos | 282,821 | 128,942 | 109,560 | 14,399 | 6,509 | 5,845 | 3,249 | 2,073 | 1,305 | 1,075 | 14,063 |
Nayarit | 179,411 | 59,925 | 50,717 | 8,862 | 1,243 | 1,758 | 1,661 | 2,394 | 310 | 775 | 9,031 |
Nuevo León | 723,629 | 596,820 | 44,413 | 89,387 | 5,860 | 2,917 | 2,874 | 2,409 | 2,144 | 2,193 | 31,091 |
Oaxaca | 509,776 | 131,225 | 276,758 | 17,221 | 5,044 | 9,665 | 12,803 | 10,816 | 1,445 | 891 | 44,163 |
Puebla | 787,493 | 399,942 | 216,200 | 37,141 | 13,263 | 11,750 | 10,850 | 9,493 | 2,885 | 1,196 | 61,865 |
Querétaro | 275,788 | 149,540 | 26,969 | 11,077 | 2,937 | 3,122 | 1,572 | 2,127 | 1,554 | 231 | 14,419 |
Quintana Roo | 112,546 | 62,006 | 26,301 | 2,665 | 1,304 | 1,550 | 902 | 1,026 | 174 | 80 | 5,522 |
San Luis Potosí | 440,601 | 196,351 | 73,523 | 19,705 | 4,546 | 2,980 | 3,701 | 2,537 | 3,192 | 996 | 26,783 |
Sinaloa | 474,882 | 285,207 | 129,025 | 12,059 | 3,982 | 2,973 | 4,383 | 4,098 | 580 | 835 | 20,680 |
Sonora | 361,835 | 330,272 | 111,978 | 33,118 | 2,778 | 2,698 | 1,646 | 1,741 | 961 | 1,066 | 17,745 |
Tabasco | 335,851 | 44,763 | 196,100 | 5,832 | 1,583 | 3,158 | 1,645 | 1,563 | 399 | 293 | 22,427 |
Tamaulipas | 481,595 | 275,989 | 192,900 | 23,916 | 5,155 | 5,307 | 20,502 | 3,301 | 1,604 | 1,357 | 30,058 |
Tlaxcala | 186,126 | 84,582 | 54,029 | 7,799 | 2,862 | 2,120 | 1,819 | 2,138 | 1,887 | 114 | 9,681 |
Veracruz | 1,360,540 | 419,109 | 612,354 | 50,492 | 16,342 | 40,825 | 16,127 | 23,508 | 7,810 | 3,115 | 93,331 |
Yucatán |
251,699 | 195,986 | 15,009 | 3,583 | 2,102 | 1,127 | 799 | 867 | 330 | 84 | 10,429 |
Zacatecas | 310,237 | 116,434 | 45,412 | 21,494 | 1,847 | 1,703 | 1,904 | 2,732 | 677 | 550 | 13,072 |
Total | 17,181,651 | 9,146,841 | 5,852,134 | 970,121 | 327,313 | 297,901 | 192,795 | 166,594 | 97,935 | 43,715 | 1,008,291 |
Senate
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Won | Not up | Total | +/– | |||||
Institutional Revolutionary Party | 17,195,536 | 50.24 | 64 | 31 | 95 | +34 | ||
National Action Party | 8,805,038 | 25.73 | 24 | 1 | 25 | +24 | ||
Party of the Democratic Revolution | 5,759,949 | 16.83 | 8 | 0 | 8 | +6 | ||
Labor Party | 977,072 | 2.85 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Party of the Cardenist Front of National Reconstruction | 400,019 | 1.17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico | 438,941 | 1.28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution | 269,735 | 0.79 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Popular Socialist Party | 215,673 | 0.63 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Mexican Democratic Party | 120,419 | 0.35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Independents | 42,251 | 0.12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Total | 34,224,633 | 100.00 | 96 | 32 | 128 | +64 | ||
Valid votes | 34,224,633 | 96.95 | ||||||
Invalid/blank votes | 1,078,198 | 3.05 | ||||||
Total votes | 35,302,831 | 100.00 | ||||||
Registered voters/turnout | 45,729,053 | 77.20 | ||||||
Source: Nohlen, IPU |
Chamber of Deputies
Party | Party-list | Constituency | Total seats | +/– | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
Institutional Revolutionary Party | 17,236,836 | 50.28 | 23 | 16,851,082 | 50.20 | 277 | 300 | –20 | |
National Action Party | 8,833,468 | 25.77 | 101 | 8,664,384 | 25.81 | 18 | 119 | 30 | |
Party of the Democratic Revolution | 5,728,733 | 16.71 | 66 | 5,590,391 | 16.65 | 5 | 71 | 30 | |
Labor Party | 909,251 | 2.65 | 10 | 896,426 | 2.67 | 0 | 10 | 10 | |
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico | 479,594 | 1.40 | 0 | 470,951 | 1.40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Party of the Cardenist Front of National Reconstruction | 390,402 | 1.14 | 0 | 379,960 | 1.13 | 0 | 0 | –23 | |
Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution | 290,489 | 0.85 | 0 | 285,526 | 0.85 | 0 | 0 | –15 | |
Popular Socialist Party | 239,371 | 0.70 | 0 | 231,162 | 0.69 | 0 | 0 | –12 | |
Mexican Democratic Party | 151,100 | 0.44 | 0 | 148,279 | 0.44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Independents | 21,059 | 0.06 | 0 | 47,749 | 0.14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 34,280,303 | 100.00 | 200 | 33,565,910 | 100.00 | 300 | 500 | 0 | |
Valid votes | 34,280,303 | 96.82 | 33,565,910 | 96.77 | |||||
Invalid/blank votes | 1,126,381 | 3.18 | 1,121,006 | 3.23 | |||||
Total votes | 35,406,684 | 100.00 | 34,686,916 | 100.00 | |||||
Registered voters/turnout | 45,729,053 | 77.43 | 45,729,053 | 75.85 | |||||
Source: Nohlen, IPU |
Aftermath
Neither the opposition nor international observers denounced major irregularities in the election, and Zedillo's victory was mostly accepted as definitive. However, there was considerable criticism towards the inequity regarding campaign financing and media exposure, both of which disproportionately favoured the PRI: the PRI alone was responsible for 78.3% of the reported campaign expenses in 1994, while the PAN was responsible for 10.4% and the PRD for 1.52% of said expenses.[8] Zedillo himself stated, during an international tour in 1995, that the election which had brought him into the Presidency had been "legal, but unequal".[9][10][11] PAN candidate Diego Fernández de Cevallos would later say that he hadn't been defeated by Zedillo, but "by [President] Salinas and Televisa".[12] Subsequent political and electoral reforms sought to provide clear rules for campaign financing, as well as less unequal access to the mass media for the opposition parties.
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
- ^ Discurso de Luis Donaldo Colosio, durante el acto conmemorativo del LXV Aniversario del PRI en el Monumento a la Revolución. Marzo 6, 1994
- ^ Patenostro, Silvana. "Mexico as a Narco-democracy." World Policy Journal 12.1 (1995): 41-47.
- ^ Thomas Legler, "Ernesto Zedillo" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 1641
- ^ Heverg (13 May 2014). "Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Ernesto Zedillo y Diego Fernández de Cevallos, protagonizaron el primer debate entre candidatos presidenciales en México hace 20 años". Plumas Atómicas. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^ "Debate entre candidatos del Partido Revolucionario Institucional, Partido Acción Nacional y Partido de la Revolución Democrática". Oficina de la Presidencia de la República Mexicana. 24 May 1994. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
- ^ Kuschik, Murilo (April 2002). México: elecciones y el uso de las encuestas preelectorales. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales. p. 116. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
- ISBN 978-6073173544. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- ^ Ortiz Pinchetti, José Agustín. "Desarraigar el fraude electoral" (PDF). Acervo de la Biblioteca Jurídica Virtual del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- ISBN 978-6071108524. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- ^ Rock, Roberto (24 April 2017). "Edomex: elecciones clave, pero no equitativas". La Silla Rota. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
- ^ "Entrevista a Diego Fernández de Cevallos". Revista Mexicana de Derecho Electoral (2). 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2022.