Viable proposals wanted

In this vie for power, candidates use all resources available to win more sympathizers than their rivals. From winning support through gifts and flooding social media with false followers to proposing ambitious plans which in reality are hard to carry out.

The seven candidates running for Mayor of Mexico City have made several proposals. EL UNIVERSAL chose six proposals from each candidate – a total of 42 – and placed them under the microscope. The result is discouraging: a little over 23 were considered unfeasible, which means candidates prefer to launch proposals and projects which verge on the unfeasible.

The proposals of the candidates shouldn't be plans which without questioning. They need the opinion of colleges of experts that can serve as counterweights and guides to devise a better project; the consolidation of an engaged society and the commitment of the communication media which have begun to change the face of electoral contests, at least in what concerns to evaluating statements and proposals of the candidates.

In this regard, in these pages, last Sunday, Sara Sefchovich wrote: the decisions of how and on what to spend money in our country are the first item we should review if we want to end corruption . Not only demand transparency in accounts and once actions have already been made but start early on, analyze whether a bridge is necessary or not, or if more subway wagons are needed or not, if it is advisable to spend on advertising, in such and such sports competition or that international exhibition. This would allow […] fighting corruption from the roots.

In this same sense, three days ago, the CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of EL UNIVERSAL, Juan Francisco Ealy Ortíz , also expressed the need to demand candidates to propose viable projects, aligned with the most pressing needs of Mexico.

Campaigns shouldn't be a stage for whims or ocurrences and to propose projects which aren't feasible or which require huge amounts of resources, currently lacking.

Campaigns and speeches of candidates imply the responsibility of proposing coherent ideas, of locating them within the limits of reality and even explain where the money would come from to carry them out. Luckily, several voices from several fronts have began to speak and scrutinize the proposals. This is the right path.

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