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Election Board Stops Añorve’s Political Ads

Real Acapulco News - 14 October, 2010

Carrying out a decision of the State Elections Tribunal, the Board of Guerrero's Elections Institute voted to approve the petitions of the PRD and ordered the PRI to stop disseminating political ads within 24 hours. The advertising was to support the candidacy of Acapulco Mayor Manuel Añorve Baños in his attempt to become governor of the state of Guerrero. As the political campaigns have not officially begun, the Board concluded that the “pre-campaign” advertising violated the legal provisions governing such matters.

The decision was seen as a victory of a coalition of three of the other major political parties: the PRD, PT and Convergencia. At the same meeting, however, the Board also approved sanctions against the PRD, Convergencia and also the PRI for failure to make accurate financial disclosures of their pre-campaign expenditures. The heaviest fine was levied on Añorve’s PRI, which had to pay more than $100,000 pesos for “serious misconduct.”

The representative of the PAN, Edilberto Rodríguez Valverio said that the PRI and its candidate, Manuel Añorve "systematically violated the law” and that the order to remove the ads will do little to remedy the situation, as we “continue to see the image of Manuel Añorve in all the public places and on all the means of transport, both public and private.”

Two of the board members, Agnes Betancourt and Jesús Hernández, abstained, saying that they were not sufficiently informed about the matter to be able to cast an intelligent vote.