Tessie Borden
Republic Mexico City Bureau
Jul. 7, 2003 12:00 AM
MEXICO CITY - Voters sent President Vicente Fox a strong message Sunday, denying
him his coveted majority in the 500-seat lower house of Congress and giving
more control to the political party he ousted from the presidential mansion
three years ago.
Results of the nationwide midterm elections were viewed as a referendum on the
first half of Fox's single term in office, and a quick count conducted by the
Federal Elections Institute showed that the Institutional Revolutionary Party
will control 222 to 227 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
A reinvigorated PRI means Fox will have to hurry to build connections with Congress
if he is to have any hope of passing initiatives that have become his most pressing
goals: fiscal, labor and energy reform. Perhaps more important, it means the
2006 presidential elections are wide open and Fox's National Action Party (PAN)
has no guarantee of repeating its stunning 2000 win.
The election, coming at the midpoint of Fox's presidency, became a rejection
of the change promised when Fox reached the presidency, ending 71 years of one-party
rule by the PRI, which was marked by rampant corruption and authoritarianism.
"This is a mandate for dialogue, restraint and building agreements,"
Fox said in a televised address Sunday. "Now comes the time for working
together," he said, acknowledging that Mexicans want him to work more with
Congress.
"People really are upset with the PAN," political analyst Jorge Chabat
said. "Fox didn't do anything. He didn't put anyone in jail, he didn't
come up with any agreements. I hope the PAN will react after this."Violence
by votersSome of the upset showed in fistfights and burnt voting booths that
kept elections from proceeding in San Salvador Atenco, in Mexico state, and
in Chiapas state, both places where Fox's efforts have failed spectacularly.
In Atenco, angry residents last year defeated Fox's plans to build an airport
on commonly owned land. In Chiapas, indigenous people led by the Zapatista Army
of National Liberation remain angry over an indigenous bill of rights that became
law despite what they viewed as serious weaknesses.
In all, 80 of more than 121,000 voting booths, less than 1 percent, did not
work or could not be set up because of the violence, according to the Federal
Elections Institute.
The institute's quick count of unofficial results showed the PRI got 34.4 percent
of the vote and PAN 30.5 percent, slightly less than percentages predicted in
pre-election polls. PAN likely will hold 148 to 158 seats in the lower chamber.
The Democratic Revolutionary Party received 17.1 percent of the vote, staying
within performance forecasts and earning 93-100 seats, the elections institute
said.
The results largely agreed with election day polls.
An exit poll by the newspaper Reforma showed the PRI with 37.5 percent of the
vote in the congressional races, while PAN held 31 percent and the left-leaning
Democratic Revolutionary Party, Mexico's third major party, had 18 percent.
As it did in congressional sessions in the past three years, the PRD will have
the chance to play the spoiler for Fox's initiatives if it chooses to ally itself
with the PRI. Alliances with PAN are less likely, though not impossible.
Fox has an ace in Elba Esther Gordillo, the PRI secretary who is assured a seat
in the lower chamber and is most likely to lead the party in the Congress. A
longtime friend of Fox and of his former foreign secretary, Jorge Casta?eda,
Gordillo has been described by analysts at Merrill Lynch as the person who will
provide a bridge for Fox to achieve at least some wins in Congress.
For example, though Gordillo has kept her views close to the vest on the controversial
topic of energy privatization, party President Roberto Madrazo Pintado is open
to the possibility. She likely will follow the party's line.
On Sunday as voters went to the polls, Gordillo kept things diplomatic.
"Our responsibility of tomorrow is for the PRI to seek consensus, to give
direction to actions (of the Congress)," Gordillo said as she emerged from
the voting booth in Mexico City. "This consensus will be to seek everything
that, through the legislative route from the legislative branch means governing
with responsibility, with commitment to Mexico and Mexicans."
The balance of the vote percentage in Sunday's elections went to the Green Party,
with 6.2 percent; the Workers' Party, with 2.4 percent, and the newly formed
Convergencia Democratica, with 2.3 percent. Other small parties did not gain
enough votes to retain their federal registration.Turnout low at pollsVoters
trickled into polling places in a steady but thin stream, and officials at two
polling places estimated turnout at about 40 percent.
"It's disastrous," said Agustin Romero, who trekked from his new home
on the outskirts of town to vote for the PRD in the central neighborhood of
La Condesa because of a recent move. "It looks like they don't think the
people have a memory. Now the PRI wants to save us and the PAN believes it's
the master of the country when during more than 60 years it wasn't even a real
opposition."Withholding judgmentBelen Gomez, voting in La Condesa, said
it's too soon to pass judgment on PAN.
"I think they have to be given an opportunity," she said. "Let's
see if they get a majority and if they do what they can."
Some who took time to go to the polls said that, beyond any disillusion with
campaigns and promises, they consider it their duty to vote.
Antonio Salas Contreras, a 64-year-old amputee in a wheelchair at a polling
place in the working-class Doctores neighborhood, made his way to the booth
though he had little sense of the candidates.
"Well, it's my obligation," he said. "With my years, I have been
in many elections in which one doesn't specifically go for a candidate. Why?
Because one doesn't know him."
Salas Contreras said he voted for the PRD, the party of Mexico City Mayor Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has garnered unprecedented support through visible
public works projects like a giant loop overpass to relieve traffic and aid
programs for the elderly.
With three years before the next presidential bout, Lopez Obrador, the PRD's
likely entry, appears to be the strongest politician in Mexico.
Voting in his home state of Tabasco, Madrazo Pintado said he felt good about
the PRI's performance in this election.
"All the polls are indicating that the PRI will be the party with the greatest
number of deputies," he said. "We are very optimistic about the chance
of obtaining this majority, and we are very happy that it might happen this
way."
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