Close Baja Vote Threatens Maverick Party’s Control : Politics: The nationally dominant PRI could gain a legislative majority in the only Mexican state that has been led by an opposition governor.

Although final results remained uncertain in close races Monday, the vote in Baja California’s weekend elections could pose a new challenge to Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel and his maverick party’s control of the state congress.

If the early results hold in a key race in Mexicali, the nationally dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) would take control of the state congress from Ruffo’s National Action Party (PAN), which dominates Baja California but is a minority opposition party in most other Mexican states.

Ruffo became Mexico’s first PAN governor in 1989, the first opposition party governor in modern Mexican history.

His party apparently retained the local leadership of major cities Tijuana and Ensenada and won control of the border city of Mexicali from the PRI, according to figures released Monday afternoon with about 80% of the vote counted.

But the PRI was leading by a narrow margin in the race for a state congress seat from Tecate. If the PRI prevails in the final count, the party would win control of the 19-seat Legislature. Final vote results are expected today.

A PRI majority could create a confrontational tone for the second half of Ruffo’s six-year term and impede some of the governor’s programs, political observers said. The PAN has had a one-vote majority in the state congress.

“If the PRI wins, that will complicate matters,” said Tonatiuh Guillen Lopez, a political scientist at the College of the Northern Border. “Many fundamental issues have depended on the PAN’s control of the congress.”

Monday, PRI officials disputed the vote count and claimed misconduct by Ruffo’s rival party. PRI activists said they would file a legal challenge charging that 1,500 votes were improperly annulled in a PRI-dominated precinct and a voter registration list was inflated in a pro-PAN district.

“From the beginning, we felt the credentialing wasn’t objective,” said PRI spokeswoman Mariana Pria. “Throughout the day, the police were detaining our people.”

Twelve campaign workers arrested by the police for improper conduct belong to the PRI, she said.

Independent observers of Sunday’s elections reported high voter turnout and generally clean and calm elections, the first ever run by a PAN-dominated government. Voter turnout was a high 85% in Tijuana, officials said.

One of the main initiatives that could be affected by a loss of PAN power is Ruffo’s plan to further reform and modernize the state electoral system.

Ruffo has already overseen the shift of power over voter registration lists from federal to state officials and the introduction of a high-tech, anti-fraud voter identification card that made its debut Sunday--the first such photo credential to be used in Mexico.

The state administration’s performance Sunday received high marks from nonpartisan human rights organizations in Mexico City and Baja California that scrutinized the elections. Other than scattered irregularities and arrests of campaign workers for allegedly interfering at polling places, they described the elections as clean.

“The elections were tranquil and peaceful,” said Sergio Aguayo, president of the Mexican Academy of Human Rights. “The irregularities that were reported were few and not very serious.”

On the one hand, the vote results indicated that the PAN’s popularity endures in this relatively prosperous and politically independent border state, where the PRI is resented as a symbol of corruption and control by outsiders in Mexico City.

On the other hand, analysts said the closeness of some races showed some voters are disenchanted with the PAN administration at both the state and municipal levels.