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Millions of Mexican Voters are Preparing for Sunday's National Elections

Aired July 1, 2000 - 8:08 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: For most of Mexico's population, it will be a new experience: uncertainty about their next president. And in fact, it is a new experience. Millions of voters are preparing for Sunday's national elections, and perhaps the best chance in 71 years of wresting power from the ruling party. All parties have called for fair elections. But there are allegations of vote buying in Mexico's poorer communities.

And CNN's Harris Whitbeck has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a poor community in the Mexican highlands, a group of townspeople are given a party by the local candidate for Congress. The politician hands out free tamales as he chats up his potential constituency. In many areas of rural Mexico, this is the way political campaigning is done.

Here it is, tamales. In other communities, free agricultural supplies, even washing machines are given away in exchange for the promise of a vote.

"These areas are breeding grounds for the election to be an exchange of votes for goods," says this man.

For many of Mexico's poorest voters, the offers are simply impossible to resist.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): there are a lot of poor people who are still being fooled. The PRI is giving out 500 pesos a piece for people to follow them, and there are some who really need it.

WHITBECK: Mexican electoral law forbids vote buying or coercion. Civic Alliance, a private watchdog group, says it has received over 200 complaints of instances of vote buying or coercion by all the main political parties. For the electoral authorities, it is a problem that is difficult to control.

EMILO ZEBADUA, ELECTORAL COUNCIL MEMBER (through translator): We cannot stop all individuals or organizations from breaking the law, nor can any law enforcement agency.

WHITBECK: International observers say it is hard to control what might happen to a vote before it actually reaches the ballot box.

JIMMY CARTER, FMR. U.S. PRESIDENT: That's something that is inherent in the system, and I don't think there is any doubt in the next few years additional corrections will be made to minimize that effect.

WHITBECK: The danger is that many votes might not be as pure as they could be.

(on camera): That is because while electoral authorities have made great strides in implementing a pretty much fraud-proof vote processing system, they have not been as successful in changing the political culture, which for over seven decades has been dominated by a one-party system.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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