Weary Voters Turn to Party of Mexico’s Past, Polls Say
02/07/2012 3 comentarios
The party that ruled Mexico for decades with an autocratic grip appears to have vaulted back into power after 12 years in opposition, as voters troubled by a bloody drug war and economic malaise gave its presidential candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, comfortable victory on Sunday, according to preliminary returns and exit polls. The victory was a stunning reversal of fortune for the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which was thought to be crippled after its defeat in 2000 presidential election ushered in an era of real multiparty democracy here. Buoyed by a strong machine across several states, by the youthful Mr. Peña Nieto’s capture of television spotlight and by voters’ unhappiness with direction of the country, the PRI defeated both the incumbent conservative party and the candidate who nearly beat conservatives last time. But Mexican voters also seemed hesitant to give party total control: PRI-led coalition in congress seemed to have lost seats, it will not have majority control, according to the Monday morning vote count. Mr. Peña’s apparent margin of victory, about 6% with 92% of the vote tallied, also looked to be about half what most polls suggested before election day, with the leftist party enjoying a late surge. “It was a good night for the PRI because they recaptured the presidency but it was not the devastating knockout punch some predicted,” said Eric Olson, analyst with Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. «They will do well to keep that in mind as they begin to form their government and rule». A “quick count” based on a sampling of returns from across the country, announced by election officials late Sunday night, showed Mr. Peña Nieto with 38 to 39% of the vote and a 7-point lead over Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who lost narrowly in 2006 and is a member of the left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution. By Monday morning, Mr. Peña Nietos’s lead had narrowed slightly, to around 5 percentage points, and Mr. Lopez Obrador had not yet conceded. He said late Sunday night that he would wait for complete vote tallies in coming days. «The final word has not been said», told supporters. In 2006 Obrador refused for 48 days to accept defeat and led street demonstrations demanding a full recount. The conservative candidate, Vázquez Mota, a former cabinet secretary who sought to become Mexico’s first woman president, was running third with 25 to 26%. Earlier in the evening, exit polls released by several news organizations pointed to similar results, though with a somewhat wider lead for Peña Nieto. He addressed supporters shortly before midnight, repeatedly saying that “Mexico won”, promising to govern openly with accountability, trying to knock down any suggestion he would reach accommodations with criminal groups, as his party has been accused of doing in the past. “There will be no deals or truce with organized crime”. Though Mr. Peña Nieto was declared the winner and President Felipe Calderón telephoned to congratulate him, the preliminary results suggested that he had not won an unequivocal mandate, garnering fewer than half total votes and trailing in some of the most violence-plagued states (…..)
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/world/americas/mexico-presidential-election.html