If the campaign for governor of Jalisco was just about visibility, there would only be one winner.
The youthful face and greased back hair of Aristoteles Sandoval of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) smiles out from around ten percent of the metro area’s 2,000-plus billboards. That’s three times more than the ripened features of his main challenger, Fernando Guzman of the National Action Party (PAN), whose image adorns a paltry 61 billboards, according to a count done by Spanish-language daily Mural this week.
With Sandoval’s publicity spend seemingly far superior to his rivals, it’s no surprise to see him leading in polls carried out by two local Spanish-language newspapers in the past two weeks. Mural on March 29 gave Sandoval a 16-point advantage over his rival, while El Occidental on April 2 showed Guzman trailing by 25 percentage points. (Obviously, steadily decreasing support for the PAN after 17 uninterrupted years of rule has much to do with these numbers, too.)
The candidates’ blanket radio and television promos tell voters little about who they really are and what they stand for, so many citizens were hoping an ample series of debates would give them clues about how they might cast their votes.
To the dismay of many, the five candidates running for Jalisco governor will go head to head in just two televised debates prior to the July 1 election.
The first is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 1, while the second will be held Sunday, June 10, 10 a.m.
The candidates will get approximately 16 minutes each to put their ideas across during the 90-minute encounter, according to the Jalisco Electoral Institute, the organizer of the debates. That’s 32 minutes of “dialogue” that will differ little from the scripted speeches used on the campaign stump.
Guzman has said he would prefer more than two debates (a common request by candidates trailing a frontrunner), while the PRI candidate has stressed that the encounters should be free of attacks on opponents and stick to proposals and ideas.
The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) has provisionally programmed two debates between the candidates running for president of Mexico, although the dates have yet to be confirmed. Some of the candidates, in particular leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, are keen to see that number increased and would like the debates to be real cut-and-thrust engagements, not simply candidates reeling off prepared statements on specific themes.
This apparent apathy regarding the staging of debates in Mexico is partly because they have rarely ignited much interest among voters. Analysts suggest they have contributed little to the final result.