Power Transfer Caps Zedillo’s Presidency

MEXICO CITY â€”  He was the accidental president, a leader so politically inept that many predicted he wouldn’t finish his term. In the end, however, Ernesto Zedillo made history by setting Mexico on course for its first peaceful transfer of power to another party.

Zedillo was the driving force behind reforms that on Sunday gave Mexico its fairest presidential election ever. When his Institutional Revolutionary Party lost the vote for the first time in its 71-year history, Zedillo promptly accepted the defeat in a televised address--sending a firm signal to his party not to rebel.

In a sign of Zedillo’s key role, President Clinton and other world leaders are hailing not just the president-elect, Vicente Fox, but also the outgoing leader who permitted the peaceful victory.

Fox told reporters late Monday that he had expected a more difficult scenario.

“We have to acknowledge President Zedillo. His performance will remain registered in history,� the candidate of the National Action Party, or PAN, said after a meeting at Los Pinos, the Mexican White House, in which Zedillo pledged to cooperate closely until inauguration day, Dec. 1.

Zedillo entered office in 1994 determined to introduce more democracy to Mexico, acquaintances say. He broke the mold of PRI presidents: He was from a poor family and had grown up in the border city of Mexicali rather than one of the country’s traditional power centers.

But the most important difference was that Zedillo had not climbed the ladder of PRI posts, as most of his predecessors had done. Instead, the Yale-trained economist had built his career as a technocrat in Mexico’s central bank, the now-defunct Planning and Budget Ministry, and later as education secretary.

He became the PRI standard-bearer by chance. PRI candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated in March 1994, five months before the election. Zedillo, his campaign manager, was one of the few PRI officials who could replace him under rules requiring the candidate to have left the government six months before the vote.

“He knew he could be the first president in history to turn over power to the opposition,� said Sergio Sarmiento, a political columnist who was in close contact with Zedillo in the early days of his presidency. “He said he wanted to open the political and electoral system, to make it more just . . . but no one believed him.�

In fact, rather than being viewed as a champion of democracy, Zedillo was widely criticized as he struggled with an economic collapse, soaring crime and a testy party. Rumors swirled that he would resign.

But the president hung on. Zedillo notched his first triumph in democratic reform by pushing his party to approve a 1996 law that led to much fairer elections. For the first time, an independent body, the Federal Electoral Institute, was put in charge of balloting. Opposition parties were granted more government financing for campaigns and more access to television, reducing the advantage the PRI had enjoyed for decades.

“The great change, the great democratic reform of Zedillo, was an independent electoral authority,� said Jose Antonio Crespo, a prominent political scientist here. “With that, you cancel 90% of fraud.�

Gone were the days of stuffed ballot boxes and doctored voter lists. The new system was inaugurated in midterm elections in 1997. It was a triumph for democracy--but a disaster for the PRI, which suffered an unprecedented loss of the powerful Mexico City mayoralty and its majority in the lower house of Congress.

As was the case Sunday, Zedillo went on national television after the midterm elections to recognize the opposition victories. In a country where the PRI has functioned as a virtual right arm of the president, Zedillo’s acceptance of loss meant that his party would fall into line.

“He is to be credited with the complete lack of violence after the [recent] campaign, and with reinforcing the behavior of the Mexican people in accepting the results,� said political scientist Roderic Camp of Claremont McKenna College in California.

Zedillo tried to reduce the role of Mexico’s imperial presidency by giving local governments far more discretion and funding and by eliminating privileges such as the “secret budget,� through which presidents could spend as much as $100 million a year with no oversight.

But the most important presidential prerogative he eliminated was the dedazo, or fingering, which allowed outgoing presidents to name PRI presidential candidates, their almost certain successors. Presidents in Mexico are allowed to serve only one term.

Zedillo instead promoted the PRI’s first presidential primary last November, which was won by Francisco Labastida, the second-place finisher in Sunday’s elections.

Zedillo’s democratizing measures have been unpopular with many members of his party, especially the old-guard cadres known as dinosaurs. But Zedillo has also faced criticism from moderates for not shepherding the growth of a reform group in the party.

“The president never carried out his political tasks in the party that would have permitted the healthy and balanced growth [of the PRI],� Humberto Roque Villanueva, a former party president, charged Tuesday in an unusual public criticism of Zedillo.

Roque Villanueva, speaking on a Mexico City radio program, assailed Zedillo for changing the party leader five times during his six-year term.

The president has also come under fire for inconsistency. For example, Zedillo adopted the appearance of neutrality early in the presidential campaign. But as Sunday’s vote neared, the president started heavily promoting his accomplishments, ignoring an appeal from the electoral authority to suspend publicity about government achievements.

As the PRI struggled Tuesday to redefine itself as an opposition party, many members were furious with Zedillo. They said it was galling to see him recognize the PRI’s defeat on television.

“PRI members are offended. First we had the ‘healthy distance,’ � complained Efren Leyva, the party’s representative in Chiapas state, referring to Zedillo’s philosophy after his election to stay out of party affairs, which he later abandoned.

“Then, he goes and recognizes a defeat, which no one asked him to do,� Leyva said in an interview with the Mexico City daily La Jornada.

Such distaste for Zedillo, however, doesn’t extend to the Mexican public. An exit poll conducted Sunday night by The Times and La Reforma newspaper group showed that, even as voters were repudiating the PRI, they gave high marks to its top elected official. More than 63% said they approved of Zedillo’s performance as president.