The Mexican electoral law of 1996, though less anfractuous than its predecessors, is again inconsistent: it may well be impossible to satisfy its clauses. The basic intents of the pertinent clauses of the Constitution may be met, and the inconsistencies of the law eliminated, by using a 'bi-proportional' method of apportionment. This would not, however, change the overall political outcome: one relatively large party in the presence of several relatively smaller ones would continue to obtain a comfortable and absolute majority. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Keywords: electoral systems, apportionment, proportional representation, bi-proportional representation Introducti onIn 1996, the Mexican electoral law was changed again, and so too the several cognate articles of Mexico's Constitution. Happily, the particulars of the numerical 'rules' for transforming votes into seats are clearer and more direct than ever before, though better rules could have been used. But once again, the law is inconsistent and contradicts the requirements that are promulgated in the Constitution.The aim of this short article is first, to explain the electoral rules and point out where the inconsistencies arise and why the Constitution is violated; and second, to propose an alternative system that responds to what it seems was intended in simple and clear terms, with a rule that is sure to give consistent results.There has been a lot of optimistic talk about democratic liberalization in Mexico, elections that are fairer, counts that are more accurate, and the like. But something more is needed: an electoral law that is unambiguous and fair, whose arithmetic does not distort the awards in seats beyond what is earned in votes. Otherwise, the gains in the tallying of votes will be lost in the transformation of the votes into seats. We show that a clear, consistent and simple formulation can meet the seeming intentions of the revised system; nonetheless the basic frame-*Author for correspondence. 330Mexican Electoral Law: 1996 Version work of the current and past laws gives an almost insurmountable advantage to one big party in the presence of several lesser ones.
The Mexican electoral laws of 1989 and 1994 are used as a case study to illustrate a point: the logical and mathematical properties defined in law have significant practical consequences. The 1989 law is an extreme case of logical inconsistency and ignorance of the properties of rules of apportionment, and as such provides a rich menu of the properties rules for apportioning seats should satisfy. The 1994 law, at face value more reasonable, is an illustration of how innocuous looking rules can yield real political advantage. Both laws can engender anomalous and contradictory results; and both reveal an inattention to elementary concepts of equity which cannot go unnoticed in view of Mexico's current turmoils. An electoral law defines the transformation of numbers (populations and votes) into numbers (political representation to political power), and so defines a mathematical function. The political and legal men who devise such functions are perhaps wise to the wiles of men, and sometimes even to the subtleties of arithmetic rules, but the professional advice of those competent in the ways of functions would bring benefits in accuracy, rigor and clarity, if not equity, to the formulation of electoral law.
A single-use phosphorimetric sensor to determine the germicide nalidixic acid is proposed. The sensing action is based on the absorption of the analyte into the sensing zone and the subsequent measurement of the phosphorescence intensity emitted by the analyte fixed in the sensor. This plane drop sensor is made up of a 3 x 1.6 cm sheet of the polyester Mylar as solid support, and a circular film 5 mm in diameter and 20 microns in thickness, formed by poly(vinyl chloride) and tributyl phosphate as the plasticizer, adhered to its surface. The sensor is introduced for 2 h into the sample solution, after which it is dried and the phosphorescence intensity is measured directly at lambda ex = 332 nm, lambda em = 412 nm, with a delay time of 0.15 ms and a gate time of 10 ms, under a dry nitrogen stream. The characteristic parameters of the construction of the sensing zone and of the processes of fixing the analyte along with the emission of phosphorescence were studied. The applicable concentration range was from 60 to 1500 ng ml-1, with a detection limit of 20 ng ml-1 and a precision of 2% expressed as relative standard deviation. The method was applied to the determination of nalidixic acid in milk and human urine with recoveries ranging between 96.0 and 103.7%. The calibration process was carried out by applying a mathematical method of finite elements that expresses the analytical signal as a function of the analyte concentration and equilibration time between the sensor and the sample solution.
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