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Mexico elections: How 5 local issues could impact the next president

Mexicans will elect 128 senators, 500 deputies, six governors, the mayor of Mexico City, and their new president tomorrow. Some of these key local races will have implications for the new president's mandate, and the governing party's ability to pass much needed reforms.

Disillusionment in northern Mexico

As much as the PRI is likely to win in Jalisco, the PAN is likely to lose in the north, which has traditionally supported the business-friendly party. After its founding in 1939, the PAN won its first gubernatorial post in 1989, in Baja California Norte, and in 2000 it clearly voted for President Vicente Fox, the man who knocked the PRI out of the presidency for the first time in 71 years. Last year the north went to current President Felipe Calderón, also of the PAN. This year the region is favoring the PRI.

When talking about the PAN's loss at the national level, most voters cite unhappiness with the ruling party's leadership on economic issues and security. But perhaps disillusionment is deeper in the north. That is where the most ferocious violence has been centered. It is also the most industrialized region, and thus it is where expectations for economic change were highest. As such, says Ricardo de la Pena, president of the polling firm GEA/ISA, sluggish growth under the PAN has been disappointing. “They are more linked to the globalized world,” he says. 

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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