Posted on 07/02/2006 5:45:55 PM PDT by garbageseeker
MEXICO CITY - Mexicans voted Sunday in a tight presidential race to decide whether their country becomes the latest Latin American nation to move to the left, choosing between a shopkeeper's son promising to save the poor and a conservative calling his rival's free-spending populism dangerous.
The campaign, which exposed Mexico's painful class divisions, was the first since Vicente Fox's stunning victory six years ago ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
Polls predicted a close race between conservative Felipe Calderon, 43, of Fox's National Action Party, and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 52, a former Mexico City mayor from the Democratic Revolution Party. The PRI's Roberto Madrazo, 53, was running a distant third, ahead of two minor candidates.
All three candidates promised to improve relations with the United States while opposing increased border security measures unpopular in Mexico.
More than 24,000 observers were monitoring the vote, which also will determine three governors, Mexico City's mayor, and both houses of Congress. The congressional races are key, determining whether the next president will face the same battle Fox did in trying to push through reforms.
Exit polls by the two major Mexican television networks showed Marcelo Ebrard of Lopez Obrador's party easily winning the Mexico City mayor's race, and Calderon's party holding on to Fox's home state of Guanajuato and the western state of Jalisco, where the race had been expected to be tighter.
In the third governor's race, Morelos, one poll showed Calderon's party slightly ahead, while the other said it was too close to call.
Voters waited in long lines during the day, some complaining that there weren't enough ballots. One group even briefly blocked a major Mexico City thoroughfare in frustration at being turned away. Several polling centers in southern Oaxaca state, the scene of violent clashes last month, did not open because of security concerns.
"We have not seen widespread problems, but we've seen a lot of confusion," said Ted Lewis, who was coordinating a team of 25 observers from the San Francisco-based Global Exchange.
In neighboring Guerrero state, two poll workers were shot to death before the polls opened, according to Lopez Obrador's party. Electoral officials said they were investigating, but the killings appeared unrelated to the vote.
Officials hoped to announce a new president a few hours after the last poll closed at 9 p.m. EDT, based on a quick count. But they cautioned they would wait if no candidate had a strong enough lead.
After a six-month campaign marked by mudslinging and a polarized electorate, Mexicans greeted Sunday's vote with relief. "Finally, a decision!" read the front-page headline in the Reforma newspaper.
Many polling stations were late in setting up, forcing voters to wait more than an hour before casting their ballots.
Carolina Nougue, 35, a perfume factory manager, sat frustrated outside a poll in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood. Nougue, who reluctantly voted for Calderon, described herself as a leftist but said she worried Lopez Obrador would govern like radical Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and was turned off by his pledge to put the poor first.
"The division isn't between the rich and the poor," she said. "It's between the ignorant people and those who think."
In Mexico City's Nezahualcoyotl slum, polls were delayed by flooding from a powerful hailstorm Saturday night. Juana Velasquez, 63, and other residents spent the morning bailing water from their homes before voting.
"Every year, it's the same. You just vote for someone who doesn't do anything," said Velasquez, who was casting a protest vote for Roberto Campa of the minor New Alliance Party.
Others simply refused to take part.
"We aren't going to vote," said protester Maria del Carmen, a 24-year-old student marching down Mexico City's Reforma Avenue with Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos and hundreds of supporters. "We don't believe in the system, and we are going to show our strength."
Early riser Lopez Obrador, dressed in a brown leather jacket, was the first candidate to cast his ballot, and had to wait nearly an hour before volunteers were ready.
"We did our part," he said. "We are going to wait to see what the people of Mexico decide."
During his campaign, Lopez Obrador accused Calderon of catering to the rich and promised that he would govern for Mexico's 50 million poor. Many followed his message like a religion, crowning him with flowers at rallies and plastering cars with his slogan: "Smile. We are going to win."
Calderon has warned that Lopez Obrador's proposals, including handouts for the elderly and poor, would bankrupt the nation. Wearing a suit and tie, he showed his right palm before voting in Mexico City, a reference to his "clean hands" campaign slogan.
"It has been a tense, competitive campaign," he said. "Tomorrow, we have to start a new era of reconciliation."
Madrazo has painted himself as the alternative to the "radical left and intolerant right" — but many have questioned how long his party, which has suffered infighting and defections, would survive past the election.
Mexican law limits presidents to one term, and Fox plans to retire to his ranch in December after his successor is sworn in.
On Sunday, which happened to be his 64th birthday, Fox gave an ink-stained thumbs-up to prove he voted and said: "I know that there are no Mexicans who want to go against democracy."
About 71 million of Mexico's 103 million people were eligible to vote.
The estimated 11 million Mexicans living in the United States were allowed to vote from abroad for the first time, but the 32,632 ballots they cast weren't likely to make much of a difference.
Thousands who missed out on the new mail-in vote — including farm workers and construction laborers living in California — traveled to Mexican border cities on Sunday to cast their ballots at polling stations.
Thank you for telling it like it really is!!!!
Thanks. I never hold back. I call it as I see it.
I think that they are exchanging one corrupt politician with another corrupt politician. But with difference, different ideologies.
You may want to read this.
Could you please tell me how you posted your tagline.
the flood gate will open if the left win mexico. The middle and rich mexicans will want to migrate to the US
So you reckon we should take 'em over, huh?
Bump!
Any idea when the final election results will be reported?
There. Fixed.
BTTT
"You freaking borderbots can't think beyond your pet issue."
It seems to be your pet issue too. You're continually trashing people who want to protect America from an invasion from south of the border. Sounds to me that you've got a dog in the fight.
I think the best for the USA is the PAN. The PRI (middle) would be a pretty bad deal.
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