Scattered violence reported as Mexicans go to the polls for state elections
There were reports of scattered, election-related violence Sunday as Mexicans went to the polls to elect new governors in 12 states.
Sunday’s voting, in states that are home to almost one-third of the nation’s population, was widely regarded as providing a preview of presidential elections slated for 2018.
Exit polls released after voting booths began closing indicated close races in a number of heavily contested states, including the violence-plagued gulf states of Veracruz and Tamaulipas, the latter on the border with Texas.
Both are historic bastions of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
Mexican media reported that some vehicles were burned and gasoline bombs thrown in Veracruz, but no injuries were reported. A driver for an opposition lawmaker was reported kidnapped.
But Mexican election authorities said the voting had largely proceeded in a peaceful fashion.
Leaders of the PRI and its chief rival, the National Action Party, or PAN, both declared the elections a success, even before most official results were released. Early exit polls seem to indicate that the PRI had won most of the governor’s seats up for grabs.
Manlio Fabio Beltrones, president of the PRI, told reporters that his party was leading in nine states, though he did not name them. The PRI currently governs in nine of the 12 states where governors were being elected.
A coalition of convenience between the PAN and the left wing of the Democratic Revolution Party currently holds the governors’ seats in the other three states. The opposition alliance was hoping to chip into the ruling party’s dominance.
Both the PRI and PAN appeared to be claiming victory in governors’ races in the closely watched states of Veracruz and Tamaulipas. But exit polls showed tight races in both states.
In Tamaulipas, both Baltazar Hinojosa of the PRI and Francisco Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vaca of the PAN-led opposition coalition said they had triumphed. Exit polls show the race too close to call. It featured accusations from both camps that the other side’s candidates had links to drug trafficking mafias.
In Veracruz, where a pair of cousins vied for the governor’s seat, both Miguel Angel Yunes Linares of the PAN-led coalition and Hector Yunes Landa of the PRI claimed victory. The Veracruz race played out against public accusations of corruption, pedophilia and secret deals.
The president of the PAN, Ricardo Anaya, said victories Sunday in several states put the party in a strong position to recapture the presidency in 2018.
The current president, Enrique Peña Nieto, a member of the PRI, was elected in 2012, ending 12 years of PAN control of the presidency. Peña Nieto, who is more than halfway through his six-year term, has seen his approval ratings slide because of a sluggish economy and residents’ worries about crime and corruption, polls indicate.
A strong PRI showing in Sunday’s races would put the ruling party in a good position to retain the presidency in 2018, analysts say.
Cecilia Sanchez of The Times’ Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.
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