Mexico destroys ballot papers

In an act that will do little to assuage conspiracy theorists’ doubts over the legitimacy of Enrique Peña Nieto’s victory in Mexico’s presidential election, every ballot paper is being destroyed.

The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) began destroying the ballots from Mexico’s July 1 state and national elections on Monday. The process will be complete by November 26.

The 16.4 million Jalisco ballots were set to be destroyed between Tuesday and next Friday. Many of Jalisco’s ballots are being recylced at a plant in El Salto, with IFE receiving financial reimbursement for turning in around 75 tons of paper in this state alone.

IFE’s general council voted unanimously to destroy the ballots in October, citing the high cost of storing and guarding the papers, and Mexico’s Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) approved the measure last Friday.

Update (Nov. 15):

Ballots from the controversial 2006 election were also set to be destroyed, but Mexico’s left appealed the decision, dismayed that any evidence of wrongdoing would be lost forever. The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) called for an examination of the ballots, citing the importance of “transparency and access to public information.”

On Wednesday, IFE announced it was abandoning plans to destroy the 2006 ballots, after a United Nations human rights commission also asked the government to hold off.

Although storing the ballots has cost Mexico 8.7 million dollars over the last six years, IFE President Leonardo Valdes vowed they would not be destroyed until all concerns have been resolved.

President Felipe Calderon defeated Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2006 by just 243,934 votes, amid widespread allegations of electoral fraud. Similar accusations were made following the victory of Enrique Peña Nieto this year, but he won by a much wider margin of 3.2 million votes.