EARLY this week, in the rain-soaked central square of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, ruling party activists closed their campaign for this Sunday's parliamentary vote, giving away free lunches to thousands of onlookers.
On stage there was music, bingo and an occasional plea for the people's vote. This scene was repeated in small villages throughout Chiapas, where local caciques (political chiefs) "collect" promises of votes before the election.
Until the 1994 Zapatista rebel uprising, Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) traditionally received its highest national vote in this region, often 100 per cent. The remarkable popularity of the PRI in the poorest state of Mexico had a straight-forward explanation: "We took the ballots home, marked them all for the PRI, then brought them to the voting booth," said Mr Amilcar Kanther, former PRI mayor of Altamirano.
The Zapatista uprising has radically altered the region's political map, as 40,000 Mexican troops co-habit uneasily with a similar number of Zapatistas living in villages scattered throughout the jungle area. Outside areas of Zapatista influence, peasant farmers emboldened by the indigenous rebels have occupied over 2,000 farms, leading to violent clashes with gunmen hired by wealthy landowners to retake disputed lands.
In the August 1994 presidential elections, the rebels came to an agreement with the government, allowing election officials to set up voting booths inside rebel territory. The first-time voters gave 74 per cent of their preferences to the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) after an intense civic education campaign outlining rights to voter secrecy.
"The conditions for a free and fair election don't exist," said Bishop Samuel Ruiz earlier this week, after at least seven villagers in Sabanilla died at the hands of paramilitaries.
The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) has opted not to install booths in conflict areas, leaving an estimated 130,000 people unable to vote, while thousands more have complained that voting booths have been shifted to remote locations beside army camps.
The Zapatistas finally spoke out on the issue on Wednesday night, confirming that they would boycott the elections, despite government promises to confine the Mexican army to barracks from next Saturday. "The Mexican political system wants to simulate a return to normality in the conflict zone but only for a few hours so people can vote. Then it will be back to the daily terror for the rest of the year," said rebel spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos.