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Peschard’s comments triggered serious concern among the party representatives present
at the meeting. Many expressed doubts about the legality and feasibility of the IFE’s
proposal. IFE president Jose Woldenberg followed up Peschard’s explanation of the
lottery system by making clear the IFE’s intention to enforce the law. He repeatedly
emphasized the importance of women’s participation in the political system and affirmed
the IFE’s perspective on the issue. He summarized the discussion this way:
There are two grand themes in our discussion: what this all means in terms of the
construction of a democratic system with the possibility for women to access
representative positions, and second, the specific formulas that can be deduced
from the law, so that we can achieve what the legislators themselves established
in Articles 175 and the others. With respect to the first, it is necessary to highlight
what several of you have said, that the participation and political representation of
women define the quality of a democratic system; that is to say, we are not
discussing a minor issue. There is no better way of understanding and measuring
the civic nature of a nation than observing that society from the perspective of
gender (Instituto Federal Electoral 2003b).
Woldenberg ended by acknowledging the vagueness of the law with regard to the
definition of “corresponding candidates.” He stressed he importance of figuring out how
to handle “extreme cases” of violation of the quota law—but he added little to clarify the
IFE’s lottery proposal. Instead, he concluded by suggesting that the parties avoid these
issues by simply complying in the first place. As he stated: “I am convinced that the
immense majority of the parties and coalitions will comply with this law. If they don’t
comply, they will be, in the first place, reconvened to try to comply; if they don’t do it,
they will be publicly castigated. Therefore, what is most likely to happen is that these
extreme cases will not occur” (Instituto Federal Electoral 2003b, emphasis added). His
comments signaled that the parties should comply with the quota law in order to avoid a
Convention