7/8/2020 Mexico 9768, 9780 and 9828 36. In case 9780, the government adduces that internal remedies have not been exhausted, while the claimant argues that the repeated refusal by electoral bodies to hear his writs preclude the possibility of continuing the process. Moreover, that the composition of the bodies called upon to decide the complaint is evidence that there is not the requisite of due process to protect his violated rights. 37. The issues to be resolved in the cases under consideration are, in the first place, specification of the scope of political rights defined in Article 23 of the American Convention with respect to the characteristics that elections must have in accordance to the Convention. Second, an analysis of the jurisdiction of the organizations created by the American Convention to protect these rights and, in the specific case of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights with regard to political rights, through the different pronouncements on the subject. Third, it must refer to the obligations acquired by Mexico when it ratified the Convention as regards political rights, ending with the specific allegations of the claimants and the government in the cases under consideration. 4.b. The political rights in the American Convention 38. Political rights are recognized by Article 23 of the American Convention on Human Rights which states that: 1. All citizens must enjoy the rights and opportunities listed below: a. To participate in public affairs, directly or through freely elected representatives; b. To vote and be elected in authentic periodic elections, carried out through universal and equal suffrage and by a secret vote that guarantees the free expression of the will of the electorate, and c. To have access, in general conditions of equality, to the public functions of their country. 2. The law can regulate the exercise of rights and opportunities referred to in the aforementioned article, based solely on age, nationality, residency, language, education, civil or mental capacity, or sentence, by a competent judge, in a criminal process. 39. The transcribed text fundamentally coincide with Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and recognizes as background the text of Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The three aforementioned texts refer to authentic, universal, and periodic elections, by secret vote or another method to express the will of the people. The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, for its part, refers to “genuine” elections, the only different wording in Article XX. 40. It is important to point out that Article 27, paragraph 2, of the American Convention, referring to the suspension of guarantees “In case of war, public danger or any other emergency that threatens the independence or security of the State party …,” does not authorize the suspension of political rights. 41. Hemispheric legal discourse has insisted, for its part, on the existence of a direct relationship between the exercise of political rights thus defined and the concept of representative democracy as a dorm of the organization of the State, which at the same time presupposes the observance of other basic human rights. Indeed, the concept of representative democracy is based on the principle that it is the people who are the nominal holders of political sovereignty and that, in the exercise of that sovereignty, elects its representatives–in indirect democracies–so that they may exercise political power. These representatives, moreover, are elected by the citizens to apply certain political measures, which at the same time implies the prior existence of an ample political debate on the nature of policies to be applied–freedom of expression–between organized political groups–freedom of association–that have had the opportunity to express themselves and meet publicly–freedom of assembly. cidh.org/annualrep/89.90eng/Mexico9768.htm 7/17