On the ground in Mexico

There has been plenty of speculation that FBI meddling and ChoicePoint involvement in Mexico's elections would spell nothing but trouble for supporters of the populist candidate, López Obrador. But now Barbara Cummings and Jeeni Criscenzo have delivered a report from "on the ground," as officially invited observers of the national elections. Some key observations make themselves known that back up the speculation. In fact, this sounds all too familiar:

By late morning we began hearing of long lines and shortage of ballots at certain locations [...] One location had run out of ballots at 10AM. All of these locations had only one or two computers. As I talked to the people, several things became very apparent to me. A majority of those waiting were voting for Mr. Obrador, the populist candidate. They were poor people and were turning out in great numbers.

Ms. Criscenzo submits her own report and, with greater poignancy, speaks of a general notion on the street that Obrador led by a significant margin, though the media reported something else entirely.

We'd been hearing rumors all afternoon that Obrador was ahead by a huge margin. The television showed something else. First, Mr. Ugalde, president of IFE explained in an almost monotone voice that the election was too close to call. Then President Vincente Fox appeared, again repeating that the election was too close to call. The four anchor persons on the channel seemed confused and troubled. Things were not going as planned.

As was reported earlier, the Ministry of the Interior managed to keep the major television networks from reporting their exit poll results.

Actually, I suspect things were going exactly as planned.