7/8/2020 Mexico 9768, 9780 and 9828 are the bodies entrusted with the organization of elections. conclude that: This led the Commission to The system instituted through the Electoral Statute … seriously demeans the electoral process because it gives a party not only the absolute majority of the legislative bodies, but also of the bodies entrusted with organizing the electoral process. This system lacks, therefore, the necessary institutional controls which guarantee the purity of elections (page 106). 67. In the 1986-1987 Annual Report, the Commission refers to the electoral process in Chile at that time, discussing the provisions of the Voter Registration Act designed to organize the registration procedures and to create an Electoral Service. The Commission underscores the relevance of criticism formulated at that time to the practical implementation of the law (page 236). 68. In the same Annual Report, the Commission extensively examines the crisis in Haiti as a result of the confrontation between the Provisional Electoral Council and the National Government Council, which is in great measure attributed to the struggle for control over the operational aspects of the election process (pages 258 to 263). This is again reviewed in detail in the Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Haiti in 1988. 69. In its 1989 Report on the Human Rights Situation in Panama, the Commission points out that “the legal and institutional system for the organization of elections offered no guarantees of impartial conduct on the part of the organs responsible for implementing the actions related to it.” (page 52) 70. According to the presentation on the opinions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding specific situations related to the authenticity of the elections, the purpose is to achieve general conditions so that the electoral process offers every group that participates an equal opportunity. 71. The absence of coercions implied in this has led the Commission to specifically bear in mind the existence of states of exception that restrict the exercise of political rights. This measure gives the authorities very powerful instruments of control over the opposition such as freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly, the right to residency and travel, and the right to personal liberty and judicial guarantees. 72. With respect to the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, the Commission has considered the manner in which the government uses its power both for disseminating messages in its favor as well as restricting the possibility of the opposition to broadcast its message. On that matter the Commission has analyzed the legal measures which regulate the exercise of this right and practices related to it, studying both direct and indirect restrictions which can be used by the authorities against the opposition. 73. With respect to the freedom of assembly, the experience of the Commission has led it to examine the restrictions of this right resulting from states of exception or other legal restrictions (police permits, for example) or the use of indirect controls such as the obligatory participation of public employees in demonstrations. 74. An element of special importance with respect to the general conditions in which electoral processes are conducted, are the activities of groups informally linked to one of the participating parties–usually the government party–who, through acts of violence, tend to intimidate those who oppose them. The Commission has referred, on numerous occasions, to situations the effect of which is to modify the basic conditions of equality under which elections must be held. 75. As to specific features of the organization of elections, the Commission has referred to the laws that regulate them with the aim of determining whether those laws guarantee both the adequate casting of the vote, as well as their correct tally, underscoring the powers vested in those bodies entrusted with implementing the activities of the electoral cidh.org/annualrep/89.90eng/Mexico9768.htm 12/17