The social-democratic Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) successfully held Baja California Sur while overcoming the usual corruption and vote-rigging to beat out the autocratic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the southern state of Guerrero, home of tourist hotspot Acapulco and a hotbed for pro-PRD leftist guerilla.Sadly but all too expectedly, the PRI was able to hold onto Quintana Roo, in which spring break party city Cancun is situated.
(Note to anybody wondering: President Vincente Fox's centre-right National Action Party (PAN) was of no importance to any of these elections, as there are no states in Mexico in which both PAN and PRD are competitive, except those in which they run join candidates against the PRI-Ecologist coalition.)
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/10834623.htm
These results are a fairly big deal, as a victory in Guerrero is believed to be a sign that the Presidency is in reach for the PRD in 2006, very good news for progressive-minded people disgusted by the autocratic fascism of the PRI or the increasingly pro-Bush leanings of right-wing PAN President Vincente Fox (Odd, since usually the Americans are buddy-buddy with the PRI elite).
PAN has been belaboured by political failure after political failure since Fox's victory, with the PRI even going so far as to win the PAN stronghold of Nuevo Leon. PAN did win an 8% plurality in 2003 federal legislature elections, but Mexico's implementation of Westminster gave PRI a 71 seat plurality over PAN in spite of its peforming only marginally better than PRD, which won far fewer than half of the seats that PRI won.
The PRD, meanwhile, has had some problems, but has successfully managed to build itself as a credible leftist party outside of its Mexico City stronghold.
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posted 15 February 2005 03:59 AM
