Disillusionment in Mexico

Three years ago, Mexicans put their nation on a vastly different course, seeking greater democracy and economic progress by rejecting 70 years of one-party rule and installing fresh leadership. Sunday’s elections, however, underscored just how feeble the reformers have been.

Mexicans demonstrated deep dissatisfaction with their present political leaders, with six of 10 eligible voters not bothering to vote. Although this kind of apathy wouldn’t alarm Americans, it is shocking in Mexico. Six years ago, six of every 10 eligible Mexicans voted; in 1994, almost eight of 10 did so. In Sunday’s midterm election, in which all 500 seats in the lower house of Congress were up for grabs, voters left the government divided among three parties.

The once almighty Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was the winner, confirming that -- even weakened by the loss of the presidency in 2000 and the dissolution of its single-party stranglehold -- it remains Mexico’s powerhouse. The PRI won an additional 15 seats in the lower chamber, giving it control over the two houses in Congress.

PRI candidates also won four of the six governorships in play, including in Nuevo Leon, the industrial state that the National Action Party, or PAN, had governed since 1997. Though the PRI won only a humbling 35% of the vote this time -- in contrast to past contests in which corrupt practices let it capture more than a 100% of the tally -- it showed it could conduct open primaries and succeed in fair elections.

Vicente Fox, who kicked the PRI out of the presidency, saw his fortunes and those of his PAN party plummet. Fox remains popular, but he’s politically impotent if his party can’t control Congress, and PAN lost 54 seats there.

The left-wing Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, dominated in elections for Mexico City’s Assembly by riding the coattails of popular Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Though some analysts already want to anoint him as a presidential hopeful, his party demonstrated little national clout in this election; in key states like Nuevo Leon, the PRD couldn’t even capture 1% of the vote.

What politicians in all the parties apparently didn’t grasp before this vote was the exasperation of Mexicans. The United States’ economic doldrums have created a major malaise for Mexico, where joblessness and crime are soaring. Fox thought he could convert his political revolution into concrete programs to improve his people’s lot. But he and his political peers now are seen as just bickering bumblers.

Mexicans aren’t handing their country back to just one party; they instead want better results from three. Fox and the various party leaders must end their pettiness and work together to restore Mexico’s optimism, first putting people back to work and ensuring their safety.