Crazy alliances produce surprising
results in Mexico regional elections
By Adriana Maciel, Mexico Editor

6 July 2010: Despite a climate of drug-related violence which is gripping Mexico, the country’s local and regional elections, held in 14 states on 4 July, proceeded without major incidents. But in Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, the two states most affected by violence, less than 40 per cent of those eligible to vote turned out to do so. In other states the election results were often the product of patched together alliances-of-convenience between left and right.

Prior to the elections, all Mexican political parties decided to enter alliances to secure victory. In many states the centre-left Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) made pacts with the Mexican Green Party (PVEM) and other smaller parties, while the right-wing National Action Party (PAN) of President Felipe Calderón allied itself with the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and some others like Convergencia and Labour Party (PT), the fourth-largest political force in Mexico.

Such alliances made it possible for the PRI to snatch power from PAN in Aguascalientes and Tlaxcala, and from the PRD in Zacatecas. On the other hand, the much ridiculed left-wing/right-wing coalition between PAN and PRD made it possible for them to win in Puebla, Oaxaca and Sinaloa, states with long PRI government traditions.

In Tamaulipas, where the PRI gubernatorial candidate Rodolfo Torre Cantú was murdered in an ambush just a few days before the election, his brother Egidio Torre Cantú decided to take his place and won the election by a wide margin.

In Hidalgo, after an ‘anonymous tip off, policemen broke into the offices of the PAN-PRD gubernatorial candidate Xóchitl Gálvez and arrested eight employees. Police officers also took documents and computing equipment with them. Xóchitl Gálvez lost by six percentage points and has now demanded to annul the election.

No elections were held in Mexico City.

State by state election results
Aguascalientes
Current ruling party: PAN
Governor elect: Carlos Lozano (PRI coalition). 47%
Mayoralties up for election: 11, all won by the PRI coalition (including the capital).
Seats in Congress: 18. PRI coalition 16; PAN 2.

Baja California
Current party in power: PAN
Mayoralties up for election: 5, all won by the PRI coalition (including the capital).
Seats in Congress: 16. PRI coalition 13; PAN coalition 3.

Chiapas
Current party in power: PRD
Mayoralties up for election: 118. PAN-PRD coalition winning 55 (including the capital); PRI 38; PVEM 15; PRI coalition 3; PT 6; PSD 1.
Seats in Congress: 24. PAN-PRD coalition 15; PRI 5; PRI coalition 2; PVEM 2.

Chihuahua
Current ruling party: PRI
Governor elect: Cesar Duarte (PRI coalition). 52%
Mayoralties up for election: 67 – PRI coalition winning 41 (including the capital); PAN 25; PRD 2.
Seats in Congress: 22. PRI 13; PRI coalition 7; PAN 2.

Durango
Current ruling party: PRI
Governor elect: Jorge Herrera (PRI coalition). 46%
Mayoralties up for election: 39. PRI coalition winning 21 (incl. the capital); PAN-PRD coalition 18.
Seats in Congress: 17. PRI 10; PRI coalition 3; PAN-PRD coalition 4.

Hidalgo
Current ruling party: PRI
Governor elect: Francisco Olvera (PRI coalition). 50%
No mayoral elections
Seats in Congress: 18. PRI coalition 14;PAN-PRD coalition 3; PRI 1.

Oaxaca
Current ruling party: PRI
Governor elect: Gabino Cué (PAN-PRD coalition). 53%
Mayoralties up for election: 570 – PRI winning 67 (including the capital); PRD 27; PAN 7; others 5. N/A 46.  The other 418 mayors are chosen according to local traditions.
Seats in Congress: 25. PRI 23; PRD 2.

Puebla
Current ruling party: PRI
Governor elect: Rafael Moreno (PAN-PRD coalition). 52%
Mayoralties: 215 – PRI coalition winning 104; PAN-PRD coalition 99 (including the capital); PT 12.
Seats in Congress: 26. PAN-PRD coalition 14; PRI coalition 12.

Quintana Roo
Current ruling party: PRI
Governor elect: Roberto Borge (PRI coalition). 52%
Mayoralties up for election: 9 – PRI coalition winning 2; PRI 2; PAN-PRD coalition 3; PRD 1; PAN 1.
Seats in Congress: 15. PRI coalition 6; PAN-PRD coalition 1; PRD 1; PAN 1.

Sinaloa
Current ruling party: PRI
Governor elect: Mario López (PAN-PRD coalition). 52%
Mayoralties up for election: 18. PRI coalition winning 9 (including the capital); PAN-PRD coalition 9.
Seats in Congress: 24. PRI coalition 15; PAN-PRD coalition 9.

Tamaulipas
Current ruling party: PRI
Governor elect: Egidio Torre Cantú (PRI coalition). 61%
Mayoralties up for election: 41 – PRI coalition winning 33; PRI 4; PAN 7; PRD 1.
Seats in Congress: 22. All won by the PRI coalition.

Tlaxcala
Current ruling party: PAN
Governor elect: Mariano González (PRI coalition). 46%
Mayoralties: 60 – PRI winning 28 (including the capital); PRD 11; PAN 9; PT 3; PVEM 1; others 8.
Seats in Congress: 19. PRI coalition 10; PAN 8; PRD 1.

Veracruz
Current ruling party: PRI
Governor elect: Javier Duarte (PRI coalition). 43%
Mayoralties up for election: 212. PAN coalition winning 56; PAN 36; PRI coalition 84 (including the capital); PRD coalition; Nueva Alianza 2.
Seats in Congress: 30. PRI coalition 20; PAN coalition 7; PAN 10.

Yucatán (Elections held 16 May 2010)
Mexico President Felipe Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN) was soundly defeated in local and state elections held in the southern state of Yucatán. The party’s defeat was blamed on the government’s failure to win the war against the drug cartels. A coalition of the centre-left Institutional Revolution Party (PRI) and the Green Party (PVEM) claimed victory after capturing 63 of the state’s 106 town halls, including that of the state capital Merida. Mayoral candidates of PAN, which governed the state since the early 1990s, won in 33 towns. In the state congress the coalition won 13 seats, while PAN won the remaining two.

Zacatecas
Current ruling party: PRD
Governor elect: Miguel Alonso (PRI coalition). 43%
Mayoralties up for election: 58. PRI coalition winning 27 (incl. the capital); PAN 16; PRD 11; PT 4.
Seats in Congress: 18. PRI 13; PAN 2; PT 2; PRD 1.

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