Only two of 19 candidates who were nominated to run for mayor as transgender women are in fact members of that community, according to a group that will challenge their registration by electoral authorities in Oaxaca.

The group will ask the Oaxaca State Electoral Institute (IEEPCO) to cancel the candidacies of 17 men who they say claimed they were transgender women in order to take advantage of a gender parity law that stipulates that half of all candidates at the municipal level must be women.

And should the nominee be a transgender, transsexual, intersexual or muxe, the nomination will correspond to the gender “a person assigns to him/her self and . . . will be taken into account for the compliance of the gender parity principle,” the law says.

Anabel López Sánchez, president of the Collective for Women’s Citizenship (CCM), charged that five political parties acted in a “dishonest and fraudulent” manner by registering candidates as transgender women when they were really men. They did so, she said, to avoid penalties for not complying with the gender parity rule.

The “For Mexico in Front” coalition, an alliance of the National Action (PAN), the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Citizens’ Movement (MC) parties, registered the largest number of transgender candidates with seven.

The coalition headed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), “Everyone for Mexico,” also registered candidates it said were transgender.

López said that the nomination of men as transgender candidates meant that women were losing access to candidacies they are legally entitled to.

She also said that several of the candidates who registered as transgender women did so in order to seek reelection even though they previously stood for elected office as men and had not previously identified as being transgender.

At least 15 of the candidates provided male names in their registrations although they said they identified as women.

Only two candidates running for mayor, in the municipalities of San Pedro Mixtepec and Magdalena Tlacotepec, have been recognized as truly being transgender women.

Both identify as muxes, which is considered a third gender in the Zapotec culture. They were born male but from a young age were drawn to living as a girl and later as a woman.

In response to the complaints, IEPCO said it would initiate an investigation. Parties found to have violated the law could face penalties ranging from a fine to the cancelation of the candidacies.

IEPCO official Luis Miguel Santibáñez explained that electoral authorities had acted in good faith and registered the candidates without questioning their legitimacy or the parties’ motives.

Another IEPCO official said it was clear that an infringement had occurred.

“The vast majority are married men with families who can’t be identified as transsexuals either due to their physical appearance or other characteristics,” transsexual woman and electoral councilor Michell Altamirano Pacheco said.

“It’s a disappointment because transsexual people have fought for a long time and we’ve managed to gain these electoral rights only for these people to come and tarnish all our work. It’s annoying and disappointing,” she added.

Source: Milenio (sp), NVI Noticias (sp), Animal Político (sp), El Universal (sp)