The Mexican Political Structure -
Election Schedules and other information.
Return to Federal Directory

FEDERAL

Mexico is a federation of 31 states and the Federal District (i.e. Mexico City, DF)

The Federal Government has Three Branches:  Executive, Legislative and Judicial.  In practice, they are very centralized, with much power vested in the executive.

 

 ·                     Executive Branch:  President

Elected to a 6 year term, called a sexenio .  President cannot be re-elected.

·                     Next presidential election will be July 2, 2006

 

The President appoints his closest collaborators, who are the government's Department Secretaries/Ministers.  Each one is in charge of a Department/Ministry. 

eg:  SEMARNAT Secretariat of Environment, Natural Resources & Fisheries

or SECTUR Secretariat of Tourism

 

·                     Legislative Branch:  Congreso de la Union has two parts:

1.  Camera de Senadores (Senate): 128 Federal Senators

• 96 are directly elected by simple majority vote in their districts.
• 32 are allocated by proportional representation, i.e.on the basis of each party's popular vote. 
• All serve six-year terms

elections: Senadores - last held 2 July 2000 for all of the seats (next to be held 2 July 2006)  Cannot be re-elected to consecutive terms.

 

2.  Camara Federal de Diputados -  500 Diputados Federales (Congressmen)

 (Federal Chamber of Deputies, equivalent to US House of Representatives)        

• 300 members are directly elected by simple majority vote in their districts
• the remaining 200 members allocated by a form of proportional representation, i.e.on the basis of each party's popular vote. (The 200 proportional representation seats were created to help smaller parties gain access to the Chamber.) All serve three-year terms
• elections: Federal Diputados - last held 6 July 2003 (next to be held 2 July 2006).  Cannot be re-elected to consecutive terms.

 Currently, the century-old ban on re-election and the party hierarchies' control of those 200 deputies (40% of the Chamber of Deputies) elected by proportional representation perpetuates the influence of party bosses.

 

 

STATE

Just like the Federal Government, the state government is divided into three branches.

 

1.  The Gobernador (Governor) holds state Executive power, applies state laws. 

Governors are elected for 6 years. Governors may not be reelected.  Elections of governors are on a rotating basis, so that each year six of the states have elections for Governor.

Elections:  The current governor of Baja California Sur - Narciso Agundez Montano -  took office in April 2005

2.  The Legislative branch only has one chamber; the Camera de DIPUTADOS (State chamber of Deputies).  State deputies are elected for 3 years and may not be re-elected.

 

MUNICIPAL

§                     A Municipio (municipality) is like a county.  The Presidente Municipal or Alcalde (Mayor) is elected for three years.  Todos Santos is within the Municipio of La Paz. 

Elections:  The current Presidente Municipal of La Paz - Victor Castro Cosio - took office in May 2005.

Delegados (Delegates) represent the smaller towns (eg Todos Santos) within the Municipio.  They are elected for three years.  The current delegado for Todos Santos - Jesus Beltran Guluarte - took office in June 2005.

 

Thanks are due to an anonymous source for this information.